revolutsioonini

Revolutsioonini is an Estonian temporal expression meaning “until the revolution.” It is formed from the noun revolutsioon (revolution) and the suffix -ini, which marks a boundary in time and is used to express a limit up to a specific event. The term is most commonly found in historical and political writing where precise time framing is important.

In usage, revolutsioonini functions as an adverbial time marker indicating the end point of a period without specifying an exact date. It can complete statements about duration or timelines, for example describing events, reforms, or developments that persist up to the moment of a revolution. It is often used in juxtaposition with other time expressions or with the verb of a clause to convey continuity up to that point.

Grammatically, revolutsioonini behaves as a time-bound modifier and can appear in different syntactic positions within a sentence, depending on the surrounding structure. In many contexts, it can be accompanied by additional temporal cues or dates to clarify when the revolution occurred.

Etymology and form: The word is built from revolutsioon plus the productive time-bound suffix -ini, a pattern in Estonian for creating endings that denote up to a certain limit. This construction is distinct from phrases such as ennen revolutsiooni (before the revolution), which refer to different temporal relations.

See also: revolutsioon, ajalooline terminoloogia, keelekasutus ajaloos.