haudatut

Haudatut is a Finnish word, the nominative plural form of the past participle haudattu, derived from the verb haudata, which means "to bury." Literally rendered in English as "the buried" or "buried ones," haudatut functions both as an adjective modifying a plural noun (e.g., haudatut ruumiit — "buried bodies") and as a nominalized plural referring to buried persons or things. Pronunciation in standard Finnish is approximately /ˈɦɑudɑtut/.

Morphology and usage follow regular Finnish participial agreement: the past participle haudattu agrees in number and case with the noun it qualifies, producing haudatut in the nominative plural. As with many participles in Finnish, the form can be used in compound expressions, legal or funerary contexts, historical narratives, and genealogical records to describe items or people that have been interred.

Etymologically haudata is built from hauta ("grave") and the verb-forming element -ta/-tä. The term should be distinguished from similar-looking forms derived from related verbs (for example hauduttaa, "to have something simmered," yields different participles). Haudatut thus communicates the specific meaning of having been buried and is employed in both literal and metaphorical contexts within Finnish.