Puutus

Puutus is a noun in the Estonian language that denotes contact or touch between objects, surfaces, or people. It can refer to the physical act of touching as well as the state of being in contact. The term is closely related to the verb puudutama, meaning to touch, and to related words such as puudutus, which is the standard noun for touch or contact in many contexts. In formal usage, puudutus is generally preferred for the broad sense of touch, while puutus may appear in fixed expressions or as a shortened form in some texts.

In everyday language, puutus can be used to describe sensory experiences, such as the feel of a surface, or social contact, such as a light touch on the arm. In technical and scientific contexts, the word is often supplemented or replaced by more field-specific terms like kontakt (contact) in electronics and engineering, depending on the domain.

In mathematics, the concept closest to tangency is typically expressed with the term puutuvus, and the point where a curve touches a line is referred to as the puutepunkt. These terms reflect the broader family of words related to contact and touching in Estonian.

Etymology: Puutus derives from the Estonian verb puudutama, with the -us suffix forming a noun that indicates a state or process related to touching.