kuivan

Kuivan is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective kuiva, meaning dry. It commonly appears in noun phrases where the noun is in the genitive case, indicating dryness of the described thing. Examples include kuivan ilman (of dry air) and kuivan maan (of dry land). In standard usage, kuivan is not a standalone lexical item with a separate meaning beyond this grammatical function, although it may appear in fixed expressions and, in some contexts, as a surname or toponym.

Etymology and grammar: The form derives from kuiva and the genitive singular ending -n; Finnish adjectives decline to match the case and number of the noun they modify, so kuiva becomes kuivan in the genitive singular. This inflection is part of the broader system by which adjectives encode grammatical relations in Finnish sentences.

Usage and related forms: Kuivan is primarily a productive marker of dryness in descriptive language, used to describe weather, soils, air, textiles, and other nouns in contexts that require a genitive construction. Related forms include kuivaa (partitive singular of the adjective), kuivuus (dryness or drought), and kuivata (to dry, a verb). The word cluster is common in Finnish writing and speech when expressing properties of substances or environments.

See also: kuiva, kuivuus, kuivata. Note that kuivan itself is an inflected form rather than a separate lexical entry, and it generally appears within Finnish sentences rather than as an independent concept.