pesemätön

Pesemätön is a Finnish adjective meaning not washed or unwashed. It is used to describe clothes, dishes, or other items that have not been cleaned, as well as people in contexts where cleanliness is emphasized. The term can function as a descriptive label in both everyday and written Finnish.

Etymology and forms: pesemätön is formed from the verb pese (to wash) with the negative suffix -mä/-tön, a common pattern for creating negated adjectives in Finnish. The related noun pesemättömyys denotes unwashedness or dirtiness. Like other adjectives, pesemätön inflects for number and case, for example pesemätön paita (an unwashed shirt), pesemättömät paidat (unwashed shirts), genitive pesemättömän paidan, and so on.

Usage: The word is primarily employed for literal cleanliness. Common collocations include pesemättömät astiat (unwashed dishes), pesemättömät sukkahI (unwashed socks), and similarly with other laundry or kitchenware. It is less typical to use pesemätön in formal contexts, where more precise phrases such as “peselemätön” or “peselemätön tilanne” would be used only in specialized, rarely encountered constructions. In everyday speech, pesemätön conveys a straightforward, tangible state of not having been washed.

See also: pese, peseytyminen, pesemättömyys.

Note: The term is straightforward in meaning, and its usage is largely restricted to the literal sense of cleanliness.