Kura (Kura)
No-one seems to know... The obvious solution that comes to mind relates to Kuramaa, Courland, the county, region and former Duchy of Kurzeme in present-day Latvia. On the island of Kihnu, for example, a kuralane may designate either a ‘Courlander’ or, more reasonably, an inhabitant of the Kura village in Pärnumaa (it’s only half an hour away by raven). On its heels comes the Kura kurk, better known as the Irbe Strait between Saaremaa and Latvia (Latvian: Irbes jūras šaurums). Lastly – ignoring the word kurameerima (to court), implying cultural remnants of a probably German loan word from French with its bizarre SW Estonian dialect form hannatõllõma, meaning (and I could be wrong, so correct me please): to lurk around like an arctic skua… (these birds are quite predatory) – and of limited relevance is a river in Georgia (Mt’k’vari, in Georgian, მტკვარი, suggested to be derived from Megrelian tkvar-ua, to gnaw or gouge, as rivers are thought to do as a geological form of bed-wetting, but one suspects more likely from an older Georgian root meaning, quite simply, good water), often considered to be a demarcation between Europe and Asia, and whose Turkish name Kura is derived from ‘Kurosh’, the Persian pronunciation of Cyrus the Great. But why? Kura has a variety of cognates, generally negative: kura itself, dialect for ‘left’ or ‘worse’; kurat (devil, see Kuradi Torn), both a standard word and a common dialect form of kura etymologically related for being on the left side of God; but it seems that early Est. *kura (dirt or excrement, related to Finnish kura [mud]) tended towards something milder, but still bad, poor or unfortunate, evolving over time into a more malevolent meaning, such as that in kuri (evil, malicious, devil, etc.; ‘beware of the dog’ translates as kuri koer). But it has also been defined as maapind, which ranges from plain ‘land’ to squishy mire. Given Estonia’s latitude between the Polar and Ferrel cells and correspondingly changeable weather conditions, large expanses of the country have long been hard to drain and ‘domesticate’, and given too the relatively common occurrence of poor agricultural Alvari-type land, naming unproductive or or failed farm plots could easily warrant the name Kura. To conclude, given its relative frequency in Estonia as farm or locality name (oikonym), its historical use as personal name, e.g. Kurь, from Tohtkiri No.690 (see Tohu), ca. ≤14th C, in Finland and Karelia, it may simply reflect a common tendency to point out the different, i.e. left-handedness, with a possible derogatory or condescending cousin in the sense of beggar (dialectical Finnish kurri, Estonian kerjus. At the end of the day, however, it may simply refer to a farm ‘on the left’ (to somewhere). Or not. There is a farm called Kuura, two ‘u’s, somewhat further south. Only street set with two anagrams: Karu and Raku. Appropriately, belonging to a sinister (from Latin for ‘left’...) little street trio, see also Kõnnu. Or again, probably all wrong, and maybe just a serious misspelling or simplified pronunciation of a one-time estate in the area known on maps from 1808 and 1865, etc., as Gut Cournal or Kurnal... It is after all only 800 m from the Kurna brook running through the neighboring municipality of Rae. Formerly known (until 1970) as Muraka.
