epätasaista

Epätasaista is the partitive singular form of the Finnish adjective epätasainen, meaning not even, unequal, or irregular. It is used to describe distributions, outcomes or qualities that are not homogeneous, balanced or fair. The term frequently appears in discussions about inequality, fairness, or irregular patterns in nature and society.

In Finnish, epätasaista typically accompanies nouns in the partitive case when referring to an indefinite amount or to a characteristic of a non-countable distribution. Examples include phrases such as tulonjako on epätasaista (income distribution is unequal) or epätasaista tulonjakoa (unequal income distribution, in the partitive). The form is also used with other nouns to characterize uneven phenomena, for instance sää tai lämpötilan vaihtelut voivat olla epätasaista (the weather or temperature variations can be uneven).

Etymologically, epätasaista is formed from epätasainen (not equal, uneven) with the usual Finnish adjective inflection, where -a/-ä endings mark the partitive singular in many contexts. The root tāsa- conveys the sense of equality, while the prefix epi- negates it.

See also: epätasainen, which is the base form meaning uneven; tasa-arvo and epätasa-arvo, which relate to equality and inequality in social contexts.

Overall, epätasaista serves as a versatile descriptor in Finnish for describing unevenness, disparity and irregularity across economic, statistical, environmental, and social discussions.