kapsi

Kapsi is a Finnish noun that denotes a small, enclosed container or capsule. In everyday language, it is often used as a casual or shortened form of kapseli, particularly when referring to capsule-like objects. While kapseli is the standard term in technical or medical contexts, kapsi persists as a common choice in colloquial speech.

The word has its roots in the same semantic family as the Swedish kapsel and the Latin capsula, from which many European languages derive the equivalent word capsule. In Finnish, kapsi commonly appears in phrases describing compact, rounded enclosures or discrete units that resemble a capsule.

Use of kapsi spans several domains. In medicine, kapsi is frequently used informally to mean a pill capsule or similar dosage form, whereas kapseli is preferred in formal writing. In botany and zoology, the technical term for a plant or animal fruit that splits open to release seeds is kapseli; however, kapsi may appear in non-technical or everyday descriptions to convey a similar sense of a small enclosing structure. In spaceflight and common discourse alike, avaruus kapseli is used to refer to a space capsule, especially in descriptive or popular contexts.

See also: kapseli, kapseli (botany), avaruuskapseli. The distinction between kapsi and kapseli hinges on register and context, with kapsi favoring informal speech and kapseli serving as the precise, standard term in technical language.