# pii (not meaning "flint")



## Gavril

Does _pii _work in these sentences (I know that _hammas _would be the more common term in the last one)?
_

Akseli kytkeytyy pyörään useilla piillä.

Kiipesin tikapuun viimeiseen piihin asti.

Hammaspyörän ulkopiirillä on monet piit.


_​Kiitos


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## kirahvi

The word _pii_ is very rare these days in any other meaning than pi or flint and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't even know it's a synonym for tooth.

_Akseli kytkeytyy pyörään useilla piillä. _Are you talking about a bicycle wheel? In that case I'd use _pinna (pinnoilla) _instead.

_Kiipesin tikapuun viimeiseen piihin asti. _Kiipesin tikapuiden/tikkaiden (pluralia tantum) ylimmälle _puolalle_ asti.

_Hammaspyörän ulkopiirillä on monet piit. _Hammaspyörän ulkokehällä on monta _hammasta_. / Rattaan ulkokehällä on monta _piitä_.

I, for some reason, always use _hammas_, if I talk about _hammaspyörä_ (which I don't use a lot), but if I talk about _ratas_, I use _pii_, unless I notice the person I'm talking with isn't familiar with the word. Then I use _hammas_ instead.


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## Hakro

kirahvi said:


> The word _pii_ is very rare these days in any other meaning than pi or flint and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't even know it's a synonym for tooth.
> 
> _Akseli kytkeytyy pyörään useilla piillä. _Are you talking about a bicycle wheel? In that case I'd use _pinna (pinnoilla) _instead.
> 
> _Kiipesin tikapuun viimeiseen piihin asti. _Kiipesin tikapuiden/tikkaiden (pluralia tantum) ylimmälle _puolalle_ asti.
> 
> _Hammaspyörän ulkopiirillä on monet piit. _Hammaspyörän ulkokehällä on monta _hammasta_. / Rattaan ulkokehällä on monta _piitä_.
> 
> I, for some reason, always use _hammas_, if I talk about _hammaspyörä_ (which I don't use a lot), but if I talk about _ratas_, I use _pii_, unless I notice the person I'm talking with isn't familiar with the word. Then I use _hammas_ instead.


I've read, written and translated technical texts for more than half a century but this is the first time I hear that _pii_ could be a part of a gear. I could say _ratas_ for chain sprocket but even there I wouldn't say _pii_ instead of _hammas_. _Pii_ is a synonym for _piikki_ and it may be a synonym for _hammas _in some special contexts, but for example in the gearbox of an automobile there's absolutely no _pii_.


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## Ригель

I associate _pii_ only with π and Silicon (plus derivations). The only exception that I can come up with is the saying _selkäpiitä karmii (~get shivers down the spine) _which, it would appear to me, makes use of _pii_ in a non-conventional way. Furthermore, replacing _pii _in the compound with _hammas _or _piikki _doesn't make the word sensical, quite the opposite.


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## kirahvi

_Pii_ is an old word meaning tooth, so I don't think there's that much of a leap from talking about _pii_ instead of _hammas_ in the context of gears. I use the word _pii _also for a spike in rakes, but that's about the extent I use the word outside mathematics of chemistry. Dialect, or even idiolect, I suppose, rather than very technical.

_Selkäpii_ is simply the old way of saying selkäranka.


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## Gavril

kirahvi said:


> The word _pii_ is very rare these days in any other meaning than pi or flint and I'm pretty sure a lot of people don't even know it's a synonym for tooth.
> 
> _Akseli kytkeytyy pyörään useilla piillä. _Are you talking about a bicycle wheel? In that case I'd use _pinna (pinnoilla) _instead.



I was thinking of any wheel with spokes (bicycle wheel, cart wheel, waterwheel and so on).

_



			Kiipesin tikapuun viimeiseen piihin asti.
		
Click to expand...

_


> Kiipesin tikapuiden/tikkaiden (pluralia tantum) ylimmälle _puolalle_ asti.



I feel as though I've seen the phrase _tikapuiden pii _"rung of a ladder" before, but perhaps I'm misremembering -- have you never heard this phrase?

How about _tikapuiden askel__ma_ as an alternative to _tikapuiden puola_?


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## Hakro

Ригель said:


> Furthermore, replacing _pii _in the compound with _hammas _or _piikki _doesn't make the word sensical, quite the opposite.


Do you mean _selkäpii_ or compounds in general?

Nykysuomen sanakirja gives examples of _pii_ in compounds:
rautapii (iron flint)
teräspii (steel flint? Not explained in NS.)
nenäpii (upper part of the nose of a horse)
niskapii (part of the spine? Not explained in NS.)
nurkkapii (??? Not explained in NS.)
rantapii (shoreline)
selkäpii (spine)
suolenpii (??? Not explained in NS.)

In words like _haravan pii_ or _kamman pii_ it's clear that _pii = piikki._


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## Hakro

Gavril said:


> I feel as though I've seen the phrase _tikapuiden pii _"rung of a ladder" before, but perhaps I'm misremembering -- have you never heard this phrase?
> 
> How about _tikapuiden askel__ma_ as an alternative to _tikapuiden puola_?


Nykysuomen sanakirja gives an example of _tikapuiden pii_ (by Juhani Aho) but it's rare and archaic. 

Today _askelma_ seems to be the most common term, obviously because _puola_ has several other meanings (coil, Poland, polish, cowberry).


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