Kekko?

[Jaakko Leino]

Rauna Kuokkanen & Philip Burgess wrote:
>
> Nobody has been able to tell me yet the origin and meaning of the
> finnish word "kekko".
> Can any list readers help?

I present you with an anecdote which, as it happens, contains a fairly
decent answer to your question.

In his (hilarious) autobiography "Ohituksia" (1987, Otava, Helsinki; the
story is on pages 253-258) the late professor of folkloristics Matti
Kuusi tells about an incident that happened late in the fall in 1955, a
little while before the 1956 presidential election in which U. K.
KEKKOnen was elected for the first time.

Kuusi wrote a regular column in the newspaper "Uusi Suomi" under the
pseudonym "Matti" at the time. In November 1955 he had a hard time
coming up with an idea for the column until he came across an article,
written by another late professor, Kustaa Vilkuna, which praised
Kekkonen in contrast with another presidential candidate. Vilkuna
referred, in his article, to collections made by Reinhold von Becker in
the early 1800's, claiming that "kekko" was a mythological "giant who
placed round stones on top of mountains and hills", in other words a
rather positive and strong character.

Kuusi went to consult the collections of the Dictionary Foundation
("Sanakirjasäätiö") to see whether he could find some
counter-information there. And he did, and he came up with a column that
probably didn't please Kekkonen, but may have pleased a number of
others. I'll translate (somewhat freely) the relevant excerpts (the
asterisks were added by myself):

----------------------------------------------------------------------
"In the issue 170 of the newspaper Satakunnan Kansa there was, in 1929,
an article under the rubric 'Women as booze smugglers'. It tells about
two female personae from the city of Rauma, 'who both had in their
baskets a 10 liter *kekko* of 100 % pure spirit'. Both the women and the
*kekko* were transported to the Rauma police department."

"The next information has been sent on March 30 1929 a Yrjö Virta from
the Rural District of Rauma [Rauman Maalaiskunta]: '*Kekko*,
*viinakekko* [booze-kekko] is known. A cylindrical container made of
medal plate was so called. Have no longer seen in use. When booze was
freely sold, men used to bring booze from the city with this kind of a
container.'"

"The third information was written on march 13 1931 a J. Vainio-Kaila
from Laitila: 'The form *kekko* is known in the following: *viinakekko*
[booze-kekko] and *kaljakekko* [beer-kekko] = an old-fashioned [whatever
you call a container of liquid which is usually made of leather; I can't
find it in the dictionary I have within my reach right now]."

"As we notice, *viinakekko* belongs to the special vocabulary of the
Rauma area. Much more widely is known a synonymous word, *viinakekkuli*
[booze-kekkuli]. The Finnish people wondered around *kekkulissa* [in
kekkuli, roughly 'drunk'] ages before Kekkonen & Vilkuna were born, as
is shown by the dictionary of Elias Lönnrot."

"In the folk-language the word has yet another important meaning:
'*Kekkuli* = unpleasant, malicious and malevolent person. (from
Ikaalinen.)'"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Less than two years later Vilkuna made sure to be included in the
evaluation panel for the chair of folkloristics (Finnish and contrastive
study of folk poetry, at that time) at the University of Helsinki. And,
as it turned out, instead of making Kuusi's life more difficult, he
showed true sportsmanship by recommending Kuusi for that vacancy (with a
statement that Kuusi had written for him, supposedly as an abstract of
one of his major academic works!). And, of course, Kuusi was in fact
elected for that post.

I assume this anecdote kind of answers your question. As for the book
itself, I hereby recommend it to everyone who's interested in the
lighter side of the Finnish cultural history. It's a marvellous piece of
reading.

Best regards,

  +----+----+                                   +----+----+
 /    /|    |\          Jaakko Leino           /|    |\    \
+----+ |    | +         PhD student           + |    | +----+
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