Karkauteen

Karkauteen is the illative singular form of the Finnish noun karkaus, meaning an escape or flight. The illative case in Finnish expresses motion toward or into something; thus karkauteen can be glossed as into an escape or toward escape. The term is encountered mainly in linguistic discussion of Finnish morphology and in literary contexts; it is not a common everyday word, and in many texts is treated as a grammatical example rather than as a word used in ordinary dialogue.

Etymology: karkaus comes from the verb karkata, “to flee, to escape,” with the nominalizing suffix -us forming “karkaus” (the act of escaping). The illative suffix -euteen attaches to nouns to denote motion into the state or activity.

Usage: In everyday Finnish, forms derived from karkaus are uncommon; more common expressions for escape include “pakeneminen” (escape) and “paeta” (to flee). Karkauteen is typically encountered in linguistic discussions or in literary texts where the author analyzes case inflection.

See also: karkaaminen, karkailu, karkuteille, karkottaa.