Ühest eesti keeles puuduvast mõistest ja selle aseainest
On a concept missing from Estonian and the substitute thereof

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the Latin-French-English concept vānitās/vanité/vanity as an example of how the Latin-based European conceptual system has dissolved into different words in younger literary languages such as Estonian. It distinguishes between the older definition of the concept, ‘something that is vain, empty, or valueless’, as expressed by equivalents of the Hebrew word hebel in Old Testament translations, and the meaning of ‘inflated pride in oneself or one’s appearance’, which is predominant in the more modern English and French usage. The article examines how these two meanings are reflected in Estonian, drawing comparisons with German, Finnish, and Latvian. To identify the carriers of the older meaning, the words historically used in the translations of the Book of Ecclesiastes and certain psalms are scrutinized. For carriers of the newer meaning, the equivalents found in translations of the title of W. M. Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair and in modern bilingual dictionaries are considered. The analysis reveals that in German, the unity of the concept has been preserved, with the term Eitel(keit) encompassing both meanings. In Finnish, the older meaning is represented by turhuus and the newer meaning by turhamaisuus, which is clearly a derivative of the first, establishing a clear conceptual connection. However, in Estonian and Latvian, words of entirely different origins express these two meanings. In Estonian, the older sense is conveyed by the word tühisus (derived from the word tühi ‘empty’), and the newer meaning by edevus. The article provides a more in-depth examination of the word edevus – it is derived from the verb ­ede(ne)­ma ‘advance, make progress’ and, as such, lacks analogous derivations with similar meaning in the other languages examined.

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