Imeväisillä

Imeväisillä is the adessive plural form of the Finnish noun imeväinen, which historically means an infant or nursing child. In contemporary language the term is rare and mostly found in historical, religious, or linguistic contexts. Modern equivalents for the concept are vauvat (babies) or imeväiset in the nominative plural.

Imeväinen derives from the verb imeä, meaning “to suck,” and the word historically reflected the feeding habits of a young child. The form imeväisillä, as adessive plural, signals a spatial or relational meaning such as “on/at the infants” or “with the infants” in sentences that require the adessive case. In prose, it may appear in passages describing groups of infants or in linguistic examples illustrating Finnish inflection.

Usage and contemporary relevance: imeväisillä is primarily encountered in literary, religious, or scholarly texts and is rarely used in everyday Finnish. Linguistic references may cite it as an illustration of the adessive plural form, while everyday language tends to prefer vauvat or imeväiset when referring to infants. The term serves a historical or descriptive role rather than a current common usage.