Peitteleviä

Peitteleviä is the partitive plural form of the Finnish adjective peittelevä, which can be translated as “veiled,” “concealing,” or “evasive.” In Finnish grammar, adjectives decline to agree with the nouns they modify in number and case; when the noun is in the partitive plural, the adjective takes the ending -iä, producing peitteleviä.

Usage and meaning

Peitteleviä is used to describe statements, explanations, actions, or other phenomena that are intentionally not straightforward or that aim to obscure facts. The nuance is that what is described is not simply incomplete, but deliberately veiled or evasive. The term is common in journalism, political analysis, and literary prose, where authors want to convey a sense of obfuscation or half-truths without labeling the subject as obviously mendacious.

Examples

Examples of the form in context include peitteleviä selityksiä (evasive explanations), peitteleviä vastauksia (concealing answers), and peitteleviä virheitä (veiled mistakes). The adjective can modify a wide range of nouns in the partitive plural, depending on the discourse.

Relation to related terms

Peitteleviä stems from peittelevä, which derives from peitellä, meaning to hide or conceal. The usage reflects Finnish preference for attributive description in conjunction with case and number to express nuance. It is distinct from more direct descriptors and is often chosen to signal strategic ambiguity rather than outright falsity.