Names
Peoleo (Peoleo)
Oriole (Oriolus oriolus) a bright yellow (male) or drabber greenish (female) migratory bird, in Estonia from mid-May to mid-August, as reflected in its older Ger. name Pfingstvogel (Pentecost bird) for its usually arriving in May. Its Eng. name is said to come from either its serendipitously similarly-sounding song ‘or-iii-ole’ or from its color called aureolus (golden) until Thomas Aquinas’s one-time teacher, the polymath Aristotelian Albertus Magnus, decided that oriolus was good enough. And so it is. It’s Estonian name is uncertain, probably a rhyming duplication of peo, poss. from Pidu or peo:peo (hand, palm), but given is multiple synonyms ranging from piho (old spelling), through tepoteo, kikuviu, peebupiu (all prob. just onomatopœa), kräunuja kull (hawk that goes ‘kräun’?), hommikumaa täht (star of the east) to kuuseööbik (spruce nightingale), probably just because it’s a cute name for a cute bird.
Pesa (Pesa)
Nest. Formerly known as Greeni from which the ‘G’ disagreeable to the Estonian palate often disappeared to produce Reeni and transliterated into German and Russian as Greenstraße and Ренская (Renskaya) indicating a personal name but whose remains a mystery. Also known as Linnu (1927-1959) with interlude as Kuslapuu (1940-1941). Anagram of Sepa.
Peterburi (0)
Saint Petersburg (1703-1914 & 1991-), sometimes Peterburg in the nominative, capital of Russian Empire for over 200 years. Previously known as Petrograd (1914-1924) and Leningrad (1924-1991) and may also be known locally as just Питер (Peter). Founded a few km upstream of Nyenskans, a Swedish fortress on the Neva captured at the end of the Great Northern War. No prizes for guessing the street was renamed Leningradi from 1948 to 1992. In the early 20th C, St Peterburg, with some 60,000 Estonians living there, was ‘the largest Estonian city’. This street is part of the E67 from Helsinki to Prague.
