# pump (verb)



## Gavril

_pumpata_ seems to be the standard word for "to pump" in Finnish. Are there any alternative terms that describe a pumping motion? My dictionary mentions the words _jyskyttää_ and _kohoilla_, but I'm not sure exactly what contexts they would be used in.

Kiitos


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## Grumpy Old Man

You are right about _pumpata._ There may be other verbs but I can't seem to think of any right now.

As for _jyskyttää:
Kaivinkone jyskytti kadulla koko päivän._ (It could be heard.)
_Minulla oli jyskyttävä päänsärky. _(No sound or noise in this case!)

_Kohoilla_ isn't very often used. It refers to repeated vertical movements. Perhaps: _Aallot kohoilivat uhkaavasti pienen veneen ympärillä._


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## sakvaka

_Jyskytys_ is more intensive and it can be used where no "pumps" are involved, only a strong pulse. Backhoes don't usually have pumps but their engines make a continuous "whipping" sound. However, if _sydämesi pumppaa verta_, you are describing it rather neutrally. And if _sydämesi jyskyttää_, it's beating with extreme intense. 

A lying person's chest _kohoilee_ because of breathing maneuvers.


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## Hakro

When I started my career as a technical writer and translator in the sixties there were to verbs for pumping: _pumputa_ for transferring gas or liquid with a pump, and _pumpata_ for different kind of pumping (back and forth) motions, also in a figurative sense. Using _pumpata_ as a technical term was considered a mistake or colloquial language. As in many similar cases, the colloquial word has displaced the properly formed term (noun _pumpp*u* _→ verb_ pump*u*ta_).


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