In Finland, the term pilkunviilaaja applies to someone who given to hairsplitting. This word for someone who’s “persnickety” literally means “comma-polisher” or “comma-filer.” The Finnish word pilkun means “of a comma” and viilaaja means “someone who files.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Pilkunviilaaja, the Comma-Polisher”
There’s a word that people in Finland use for somebody who is persnickety, finicky, a hair splitter, and it’s pilkunvilaya, and it translates wonderfully to comma polisher.
I love it, comma polisher. Yeah, pilkun means of a comma, and the other part of that word means literally somebody who files, you know, like files with a metal file or, oh yeah, I’m just picturing taking a nail file to a comma to to polish it up a little bit. Oh, I love it. Yeah, that that’s particular.
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