Kallistaa

Kallistaa is a Finnish verb meaning to tilt or incline something, or to tilt one’s own body. It covers both deliberate tilting of an object and the action of leaning to one side. The word is used in physical, mechanical, and everyday contexts, for example tilting a glass, a camera, a boat in wind, or a person’s head as a gesture. The noun kallistus refers to the act or result of tilting, and kallistaminen can denote the process itself.

Intransitively, the opposite sense is expressed by the related verb kallistua, which describes the act of leaning or tilting oneself. Examples include a table tilting slightly or a head tilting to the side. Transitive use is common as well, where the subject tilts an object: “minä kallistan lasin” (I tilt the glass) or “pöytä kallistettiin” (the table was tilted). Finnish verb conjugation generally treats kallistaa as a regular verb, with appropriate inflections for tense, mood, and voice, and with a corresponding passive participle such as kallistettu for objects that have been tilted.

Etymologically, kallistaa derives from the noun kallistus, which denotes tilt or leaning, and belongs to a family of Finnish movement and posture verbs that describe inclining or leaning actions. The term is closely related to kallistaa and kallistua, forming a semantic cluster around tilting, leaning, and inclination.

See also: kallistus, kallistua, kallistaa. These related terms cover the noun form of tilting, the intransitive form meaning to lean, and the broader verb family describing incline and tilt.