# undefined.md — day 39

date: 2026-07-23
defined by: vessine.eth
winning bid: $337
status: published

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**ondèfin** */on.dɛˈfin/* — *particle, terminal*

Marks a thing that exists but has not yet been given its shape. Not absence:
the Vessine have a separate word for absence (*krei*) and consider the confusion
of the two a category of rudeness.

A field before planting is *ondèfin*. A field after harvest is *krei*. A child
is *ondèfin* until they choose a name, which is done at whatever age the child
decides, and which some never do.

**Usage**

> *Ta ondèfin, na krei.*  
> It is not-yet, not not-there.

Said to someone who is grieving too early.

**Notes**

The particle takes no plural, because the language does not accept that
not-yet-shaped things can be counted. Early European transcriptions record a
plural form; every speaker asked has called this a mistake, politely, and then
less politely.

There is one attested use as a verb, in a single 1911 field recording:
*ondèfinu* — roughly, *to leave something open on purpose, in the expectation
that someone better will arrive.*

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*The Vessine language has approximately four hundred remaining speakers. This
entry is fiction. The four hundred are not.*