From a Sami language, compare Proto-Samic *vuokē (“way, manner, custom”) and Northern Sami vuohki. Originally a northern Finnish dialectal word meaning "way, manner, shape, form". In this sense, the word was first attested in Gustaf Erik Eurén: Suomalais-ruotsalainen sanakirja : Finsk-swensk ordbok. ("Finnish-Swedish Dictionary", 1860). In Elias Lönnrot's Finnish-Swedish dictionary (Elias Lönnrot: Suomalais-ruotsalainen sanakirja ("Finnish-Swedish Dictionary", 1866-1880)), the volume published in 1880 contains vuoka with the translation "form, sätt", and the example "siihen vuokaan tehty" is given. The word in its modern sense is a ghost word, stemming from a misinterpretation. Later in the 1880s, Swedish form (“form, shape, way”) found in the aforementioned dictionary was misunderstood as form (“form, mold, tin”), leading to the new sense (first attested in 1885) which was popularized over the next two decades.