Names
Ristaia (Ristaed)
Garden of the cross. Possibly a poetic way of saying Gethsemane (although this probably just meant ‘olive grove’), but named after nearby lake, itself probably named after nearby Pärnamäe cemetery to which the road leads. Were things so simple. The highways authority seems to have known the road as Jäätmejaama, waste-processing station, to which it also leads.
Risti (Rist)
1) Cross; 2) Clubs (card suit). Named after Risti kõrts, local source of spiritual succor: the Cross Inn, presumably on the other side of the road. Renamed (1950-1990) as Silikaadi during the Soviet occupation. An interesting aside to this is that the Livonian for ‘person’ or ‘human’ is rištīng, which is pretty instantly recognizable as derived from Christian (Ger. Christin). This is awkward. Since we know that the word ‘cretin’ also comes from Fr. crétin (shortened from the etymologically unfortunate Lat. christianus, see Katoliku Hoov), a term first used to designate persons suffering from the hyperthyroidism endemic in the Vaud canton of Switzerland and described in Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopedia as not only deaf and dumb imbeciles with pendulous goitres and a lack of restraint towards their earthly needs, but also as guardian angels for their families. As to why crétin, the popular (and reasonable) explanation is that even ‘idiots’ can be Christian. An analogous process is not unlikely here: having converted savage pagans into vanquished wretches, the Teutonic crusaders could now look down from their castles and pulpits and refer to their new Livonian Untermensch as Christians. One Livonian endonym today is rāndali (coast/beach-dweller). Another that they used to call themselves is kalamīed, men of the fish (see Viru tänav) which also (depending on date), might have contributed to this à la JC CTA.
Ristiku (Ristik)
1) Clover, trefoil (lit. three-leaf), although the etymology from rist, cross, suggests the supposedly luckier four-leafed variety; 2) Perpendicular; 3) Grating; 4) very archaic: name for a cow born on Ascension Day (Ristipäev, lit. ‘cross day’). Once (1910-1939 [1942?]) named Oskari after local alderman Oskar Gregory, not impossibly a credit note for future back-scratching by Albert Koba (see Roo). Part of a fodder and staples street-name group. See Rohu.
