Paali (Paal)

Nautical term covering a number of related objects: pile, as in deeply-driven foundation pillars, fender (dolphin), mooring-post or bollard, which latter hints at the Est. word’s origin, MLG pāl, pahl, pōl, etc. (stake, long cylindrical piece of wood, etc., > mod. Ger. Poller and Dutch paaltje) ultimately from Lat. pālŭs (post). Given the greater influence on maritime terminology of Dutch, that would seem to be the source of Eng. bollard (word not recorded earlier than 1844, which does not mean ‘not used’) but this is said to derive from ‘bole’ so nothing certain here, it could be a simple coincidence. As to ‘dolphin’ or ‘mooring-post’, the French use the curious term duc d’Albe after Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba (1507-1582), who in 1567 or 68 during the Dutch Revolt is said to have tied rebel Dutch Huguenots to stakes plunged into the foreshore for crabs and tides to finish them off. But another French word for bollard is bitte, which also means ‘dick’, so there’s that. Lastly, Latin’s pālŭs (also giving us its mod. Ital. diminutive for mooring-post palina) has another pronunciation, pălūs (i.e. switch of long and short vowels) and this means marsh or pond, reflected in the old Venetian(?) expression Palo fa palù (loosely translated as ‘poles make swamps’, essentially warning locals of the danger of just planting mooring-posts any old where) and tempting though it may be to see an organic connection between the two resulting in Dutch polder (see Poldri) the word’s immediate etymology is from Middle Dutch polre > pol (drained or diked land) with a ‘d’ thrown in for fun where polre itself was originally a dike or dam and these of course could first have been made from tree trunks or boles, particularly ironic in a country now devoid of trees and often known as Holland, from Old Dutch holtlant (wood-land) with the titilating suggestion that the wood, once trees on the land, became boles ‘creating’ the land (roughly 50% of the Netherlands is polder). So the pālŭs-pălūs connection is not completely, um, outlandish. Caveat lector! New street in the docks, but nobody knows where.

Paasiku (Paasik)

Flagstone, probably after former quarries in nearby Tondiraba, one south of Kivila (qv.), the other north of Tähesaju. One of a loose geological collective, see Lavamaa.

Pääsküla (Pääsküla)

Tallinn suburb renowned for its landfill and library. First recorded as Peskulae in the Liber Census Daniae (LCD) and assumed named after a ford over nearby river and related to the term läbipääs, or passage, walkway. One 19^th‑C folk etymology claimed that since highways were infested with robbers, reaching Pääsküla (lit. ‘escape/salvation village’) meant safety. Also the name of one of the thousand-odd hawkweeds, this one known variously as pääsküla karutubakas (bear’s tobacco), or zizi hunditubakas (‘zizi’ wolf’s tobacco), Hieracium zizianum. While the specific zizianum is named for German botanist Johann Baptiste Ziz (1779-1829), it would be interesting to know whether the zizi was associated or conflated with susi, South Estonian for North Estonian hunt, wolf, borrowed from MLG for dog (or vice versa).

Pääsukese (Pääsuke[ne])

Swallow, martin. The bird’s ‘original’ name may well have been just pääsu to which an initial diminutive made it pääsuke and a second pääsukene (we await the third.) An odd one, this... Given Estonia’s history of invasion, colonization and occupation, the country has had to struggle to maintain its language, to say the least, but here, as with its lesser variant Väike-Pääsukese, the opposite seems to be happening. Located at the business end of town, near banks and other boomtown beasts, its unpalatable name brought shame to the game of trying to pronounce it and has been effectively wiped off the business record – not a single street-sign to be found –– in favor of its neighbor Maakri. Not one street-sign to be found, and local business addresses are Maakri. Be that as it may, the name comes from Schwalbegasse after 19^th‑C property-owner and cabman, Carl Schwalbe. Schwalbe (Ger.) = pääsuke (Est.) = swallow (Eng.). Breeding in Estonia include:

• Kaldapääsuke, sand martin, Riparia riparia
• Piirpääsuke aka piiritaja, common swift, Apus apus
• Roostepääsuke, red-rumped swallow, Hirundo daurica
• Räästapääsuke, house martin, Delichon urbicum
• and last but certainly not least Suitsupääsuke, barn swallow, H. rustica

The last one is Estonia’s national bird which, shockingly, given the barrel scraped to fill out the Lilleküla bird-name group, does not even have a street named after it! But see Suitsupääsuse.

Pääsusaba (Pääsusaba)

Swallowtail (butterfly), Papilio machaon. Like Paabusilma, street planned but never built. Part of a lepidopteran group. See also Silmiku.