Poikkeavaa

Poikkeavaa is a Finnish adjective meaning deviating from the norm, unusual, or not typical. It can describe things that differ from what is expected, with a neutral to slightly evaluative nuance depending on context. The form poikkeavaa is the partitive singular used when the adjective modifies a noun in partitive case, as in poikkeavaa käyttäytymistä (deviant behavior).

Etymology and morphology: The word comes from the verb poiketa, “to deviate” or “to depart.” The base poikkeava is the present short-form adjective, and poikkeavaa is its partitive form. Finnish adjectives decline to agree with the noun they modify in number and case, so poikkeava can take various inflected endings (e.g., poikkeavat ilmiöt, poikkeavaa ilmiötä).

Usage notes: Poikkeavaa is common in everyday language, journalism, and academic writing. It is often used for behavior, phenomena, or results that stand out from the standard pattern, such as poikkeavaa käyttäytymistä (unusual behavior), poikkeavia ilmiöitä (anomalous phenomena), or poikkeava havainto/outlier in statistics. The term can be neutral when simply describing deviation, but in some contexts it may carry a critical or negative connotation, depending on what is being described.

Related terms: poikkeavuus (deviation, abnormality), poikkeama (deviation/aberration, often mathematical or statistical), poikkeama (also a verb form). Related adjectives include epätyypillinen (atypical) and epänormaali (abnormal), which may express stronger or more negative judgments.

See also: outlier in statistics, deviation concepts in science, and discussions of normativity in social contexts.