pitkäkantoisen

Pitkäkantoisen is the genitive singular form of the Finnish adjective pitkäkantoinen, meaning having a long handle or long-handled. The term is used to describe tools, weapons, and other implements with extended grips, such as harava, kirves or sorkkarauta. In Finnish, adjectives of the -inen type decline to agree with the noun they describe, so pitkäkantoisen appears when the modified noun is in the genitive singular. For example, pitkäkantoisen haravan kahva means “the handle of the long-handled rake.”

Etymology and form: The adjective is a compound of pitkä (long) and kantainen (from kantaa/kanto, related to a handle or haft), with the standard -inen adjectival suffix. The base form pitkäkantoinen is used in the nominative, while pitkäkantoisen is the genitive singular form. Other cases have their own forms, such as pitkäkantoista (partitive) or pitkäkantoiset (plural nominative).

Usage: The term is mainly descriptive and technical, common in manuals, catalogs, or specifications regarding equipment. It is less frequently used in everyday speech outside of context where the noun it modifies is specified in genitive, e.g., pitkäkantoisen haravan kahva or pitkäkantoisen työkalun kahva.

See also: long-handled tools; Finnish adjectives; Finnish morphology.