# tavis



## oreillard

Hello Finnophones, could you tell me what the word 'tavis' might be in English?  Is there such a word?  Thanks.


----------



## emppu

"And when celebs get drunk and make fools of themselves they get to go to Betty Ford's lush (oops...I mean posh) rehab. Me? I get the local AA church basement meeting. It's soooo not cool being *an unceleb.*"


----------



## tilman

It comes from the word "tavallinen" which means "normal"


----------



## jli4000

yep, tavis comes from "tavallinen" and means opposite of celebrity


----------



## nino4ka

I think one can say 'tavis' also with the meaning: someone who dresses up / acts / performs in a way that isn't considered exceptional... Someone who goes with the mass and mainstream. Or that's the way how many people in my environment use "tavis".
For example, some people who bullied me at school told me: "Oot ihan friikki mutta silti sun kaikki kaverit on taviksia." That means: "You're a freak but all your friends are normal".


----------



## oreillard

Thank you guys for your answers...I know it means 'normal' , (I'm a Finn) but is there an equivalent in English, other than normal. Normal just sounds so... standard language, we can say 'normaali' in Finnish, but 'tavis' has a kind of different connotation to me than mere 'normal'. The opposite of normal is abnormal, which is not the case with 'tavis', at least not to me. 'Unceleb' is ok, too, but how used is that, outside the context suggested? I suppose that my poorly formulated original question was about if there is a special new or newish word in English that refers to the word 'normal' in the sense of 'tavis'.  Thanks everyone.


----------



## elroy

If I've understood the meaning correctly, perhaps the phrase "average Joe" might work (at least in some contexts).


----------

