tuhoutua

Tuhoutua is a Finnish verb meaning to be destroyed, to be ruined, or to come to ruin. It describes a state that results from damage, decay, or a destructive event rather than the action of a specific agent. The term can apply to physical objects such as buildings, landscapes, or artifacts, as well as to systems like ecosystems or plans, and it can also be used in a figurative sense, for example in expressions like unelmat tuhoutuvat (dreams are ruined).

In usage, tuhoutua is intransitive: the subject itself undergoes destruction or ruin, and the agent causing the destruction is often left unspecified. It is common to encounter phrases like tuhoutua kokonaan (to be destroyed completely) or kaupunk, luoto, or koko puisto tuhoutui myrskyn seurauksena (the city/rock/park was destroyed as a result of the storm). The verb typically appears in past or present tenses to describe events that have occurred or are occurring.

Related forms include the noun tuho (destruction, ruin) and the process-oriented tuhoutuminen (the destruction, the act of being destroyed). The adjective/or participle tuhoutunut (destroyed) is used to describe objects or places that have already suffered destruction.

Etymology traces tuh-out- and the -ua suffix pattern to Finnish verb formation, with tuhota meaning “to destroy” giving rise to the intransitive tuhoutua, which conveys the state of having been destroyed rather than the act itself.