Where does “kauhupeli” come from?
kauhupeli (Finnish) comes from Finnish peli, from Middle Low German spel, from Old Saxon spil, from Proto-West Germanic spil — dance; game, exercise.
kauhupeli (Finnish): horror game
Ancestry of “kauhupeli”, step by step
kauhupeli traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Finnish peli
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Finnish | peli | game; match, game; game; tool, means, implement,... |
| 2 | Middle Low German | spel | — |
| 3 | Old Saxon | spil | — |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | spil | dance; game, exercise |
via Finnish kauhu
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Finnish | kauhu | Horror, terror, dread |
| 2 | Finnish | -u | Forms nouns from verbs. Most common with "e"- and... |
| 3 | Proto-Finnic | -u | Forms nouns from adjectives, nouns |