värvilisi

värvilisi is a word form found in Estonian, meaning colored or colorful, used as the partitive plural of the adjective värviline. In Estonian, partitive forms appear in contexts describing an indefinite quantity or non-complete objects, such as after verbs or with nouns in the partitive case. For example, Ma ostsin värvilisi riideid, meaning I bought colored clothes. The form also appears in phrases like Need on värvilisi lilli, meaning These are colorful flowers, where the noun is in its plural partitive.

A closely related form exists in Finnish as värillisiä, the partitive plural of värillinen (colored, colorfully). In Finnish, värillisiä is used similarly to describe an indeterminate portion of colored items, for example Näin värillisiä kankaita, I saw colored fabrics. The Finnish form uses the same general concept as Estonian, reflecting the common Finnic roots of the two languages, with parallel morphology for the partitive plural of adjectives.

Etymology and cognates: both Estonian värviline and Finnish värillinen derive from a common Finnic root related to color, with suffixes that turn the root into an adjective meaning “colored” or “colorful.” The Estonian form värvilisi and the Finnish form värillisiä are morphologically aligned as partitive plurals of these adjectives, used to describe non-specific quantities of colored nouns.

In usage, värvilisi is primarily a descriptive adjective form and does not stand alone as a noun. It is typically accompanied by a noun in the corresponding case (partitive) and often follows a verb or determiner that signals indefiniteness.