Refers to a hypothetical or hoped-for possibility that is not entirely certain: perhaps, maybe · Occurs in modest speech, especially when making a wish or a request.
köken: From Proto-Finnic *ehkä, cognate with Finnish ehkä, Votic ehči, Karelian ehki. Possibly derived from the negative verb stem *e-, whence modern Estonian ei, or from an identical Proto-Uralic stem meaning 'this', from which et. A third theory suggests a Baltic loan, ← Proto-Balto-Slavic *jḗˀgāˀ (compare modern Lithuanian jėgà (“force, power”) and Latvian jȩ̃ga (“understanding, sense, intellect”)).