Lauapõhised

Lauapõhised is an Estonian term that appears in occasional, specialized usage to describe something that is based on or derived from a table. The word is a compound formed from laua, the genitive of laud meaning “table,” together with põhine, meaning “to base on,” and the adjectival suffix -sed. In theory the phrase conveys the sense of being grounded in information presented in a table or organized within a tabular format. The construction is not a common everyday expression and does not have a well-established, widely cited definition in standard dictionaries.

Etymology and form: Lauapõhised combines laua- with põhine and the plural/adjectival ending -sed, yielding a plural or attributive form that can function as “table-based” or “table-derived.” The exact phrasing would typically depend on the surrounding noun, for example laiapõhised andmed (table-based data) would reflect a hypothetical pattern of usage.

Usage and scope: The term is rare and appears mainly in technical, statistical, or niche linguistic contexts where authors want to emphasize that conclusions, data, or methods are anchored to information that exists in a table. It is not standard in everyday Estonian and may be unfamiliar to many readers outside specialized texts.

See also: laud (table), laua- compounds, lauamäng (board game).

References: There is limited published guidance on this exact compound, and its precise acceptability varies by corpus and writer. This article treats lauapõhised as a marginal, context-dependent descriptor rather than a widely used term.