Kriidi (Kriit)

Chalk, not just the stuff of schools, but also soft, fine-grained limestone. Name chosen, for want of anything better, from a list of building materials including Krohvi (krohv: plaster, rendering, or thick layer of make-up) and Mördi (mört: mortar). Word derived, ultimately, from Lat. creta, ‘Cretan earth’, the white clay abundant on the island of Crete (thus known since ±1500 BCE, making it unlikely to be of Celtic origin, as sometimes suggested), and also gives the name Cretaceous which, to round things up, is called Kriit in everyday Estonian.