DOI 10.1515/phras-2018-0008 YoP 2018; 9: 137–140 Obituary Martine Dalmas, Dmitrij Dobrovol’skij, Antonio Pamies and Joanna Szerszunowicz A tribute to the life of Elisabeth Piirainen Elisabeth Piirainen left us quite unexpectedly on December 29, 2017. We still mourn the untimely passing of this prominent member of the phraseological com- munity. Because she was so young in spirit and open- minded, designing and conducting innovative projects and working with so many people all around the world, it is extremely hard for us to believe that Elisabeth is no longer with us. These few lines dedicated to her memory are a modest attempt to pay tribute to her personality, background, scientific achievements and humanity. Elisabeth’s personal background and scientific activities were closely con- nected, as the former was a determining factor in her involvement in research and choice of fields. She married Finnish linguist Ilpo Piirainen and after her PhD and a lectureship at the University of Jyväskylä the couple settled in the Münster region. That is what led Elisabeth to study a dialect from the region of Westphalia once she had received her PhD. She began by focusing her scholarly attention on toponymy, then on lexicography. Eventually, her continued interest in this dialect led her on to phraseological studies. Her life was divided between family and research, but also between two countries and two fundamentally different languages. As her field of study broad- ened, she began to examine not only standard Germanic Languages (German, Dutch, and English) but also Finnish and Japanese which she had been motivated to learn for both personal and scientific reasons. Her fascination with other lan- guages and cultures resulted in her developing a comparative perspective, espe- cially regarding symbols and metaphors. She decided to devote the rest of her life to this subject matter, and carried out innovative studies while developing lasting international collaborations. We would like to thank Elena Berthemet for providing us with a photograph of Elisabeth Piirainen from her private collection.