tervisel

Tervisel is a grammatical form in Estonian, the adessive singular of the noun tervis, which means health. Adessive endings in Estonian indicate location, position, or state in relation to a noun. Therefore tervisel commonly conveys “on health” or “in health” and appears in contexts describing someone’s health status or health-related conditions, often within longer phrases.

Etymology and morphology: Tervis originates from the Finnish-language inspired Finnic root for health. The adessive suffix -l attaches to the stem to form tervisel. This illustrates how Estonian uses case endings to express spatial or figurative relationships, with the exact meaning shaped by the surrounding context.

Usage: In formal writing or medical contexts, tervisel can introduce statements about health status or aspects connected to health. In everyday speech, its use is more limited and tends to appear in fixed expressions or as part of more complex constructions. Because Estonian case forms are highly dependent on context, tervisel rarely carries a standalone meaning outside a sentence.

Relation to other forms: Tervis itself is the base noun meaning health. Related forms include the genitive tervise (of health) and other case forms, as well as health-related terms such as tervislik (healthy) and tervishoid (health care).

See also: Tervis, Tervishoid, Tervislik.