tähistas

Tähistas is a Finnish word form that may be encountered in written language. It is typically interpreted as a past-tense form of the verb tähistää, meaning to mark with a star, to highlight, or to designate with stars. The root tähti means star, and the verb tähistää expresses the act of placing a star or assigning a star-based attribute to something. The exact morphological analysis can vary by source, but most grammars treat tähistas as a finite verb form indicating completed action in the past.

Usage and frequency: In contemporary Finnish, the more common past-tense form is tähdisti. Tähistas occurs infrequently and is often found as a regional variation, an archaic form, or simply a misspelling in modern texts. It is not generally listed as a separate lemma in major Finnish dictionaries.

Examples: In theory the form could appear in sentences such as "Hän tähistas artikkelin otsikolla," but such sentences are unusual; more typical is "Hän tähdisti artikkelin otsikolla." The preference for tähdisti reflects standard Finnish conjugation patterns for many verbs, whereas tähistas is less common and less portable across contexts.

See also: tähti; tähistää; tähdistö.

Notes: If encountering tähistas, consider the broader context to determine whether it represents a dialectal variant, an archaic form, or a typographical error. The term is not widely established as a separate lexical entry in standard reference works.