Pelkästä

Pelkästä is a Finnish word that appears primarily in fixed expressions rather than as a standalone lemma. The most common form expressing the sense “only” is pelkästään; pelkästä tends to be archaic, dialectal, or found in older texts. In contemporary Finnish, pelkästä is rarely used outside quotations or stylistic choices.

The phrase pelkästä syystä is used to convey “for no other reason than” or “merely for that reason.” The sense is close to “for purely that reason,” though in standard modern usage the adverb pelkästään is preferred for the general meaning of “only, solely.” The exact etymology of pelkästä is not fully settled; it is generally linked to the concept of mere or single, but it is not widely attested as an independent headword in current dictionaries.

Usage notes: In formal writing, pelkästä is usually avoided in favor of pelkästään or vain. It may appear in literary or regional language to evoke an archaic or local flavor. When translating or analyzing older texts, pelkästä syystä can be rendered as “for no other reason than” and may carry a stronger causal nuance than pelkästään.

See also: pelkästään, vain, ainoastaan. References: Kielitoimiston sanakirja, Kotimaista, Finnish language resources.