murskautuu

Murskautuu is a Finnish verb that means to be crushed, pulverized, or ground down under pressure or impact. The form is used to describe a subject that undergoes crushing rather than performing the action itself. It can refer to physical processes in which solids are broken into smaller pieces, as well as to non-literal situations where something is overwhelmed or defeated.

Common contexts

In geology and materials science, murskautuminen and murskautua describe rocks or minerals that are fractured and fragmented under tectonic stress or heavy loads. In mining and ore processing, pieces of material may murskautua in crushers and grinding equipment. In everyday language, the verb is used metaphorically to indicate that plans, hopes, or emotions have been crushed, for example, "Hänen unelmansa murskautuivat" (Her dreams were crushed).

Usage notes

The verb is intransitive in its reflexive/middle sense, meaning the subject experiences the crushing rather than causes it to happen to an object. Related forms include murskautuminen (the act or process of being crushed) and murskautunut (crushed, adjective). The base verb is murskata, which means “to crush,” and murskautua is its intransitive counterpart.

Etymology

Murskautua derives from murskata, with a middle/passive inflection that conveys undergoing the action of crushing. The term is widely understood in technical and everyday Finnish, and it appears in both concrete and figurative expressions.