Names
Tina (Tina)
Tricky word, ranging from (or commonly used to mean) ‘tin’ through ‘pewter’ to ‘lead’. KNAB lists the street as Свинцовая (lead) for 1900, followed by Bleistraße (lead) in 1907, then Tina in 1908. Periodic elements 50 & 82 are, respectively, tin (Eng.), tina (Est.) & Zinn (Ger.) and lead, plii & Blei, so not the same. While EES correctly identfies tina as ‘tin’ (Sn: stannum) and plii as ‘lead’ (Pb, callipygia-alert: plumbum), it also adds ‘lead’ to ‘tin’. Various neighboring FU languages also hover between ‘tin’ and ‘lead’. And one official Tallinn website which will remain nameless once translated tina as pewter, where tinasulam, ‘tin alloy’, would be better. ÕS gives plii as a possible acception for tina along with adages like Jalad on tina täis (lit. ‘the legs are full of tin’ which, interestingly enough, is close to British-English ‘my legs feel like lead’), but adds argikeelne: in common parlance. Well, we’re not commonly parlancing here, one of a metals street group, so Tina is Tin. See Vase.
Tindi (Tint)
Aka meritint or norss, the European spelt, Osmerus eperlanus, or its better-known cousin the Peipsi tint, O. e. morpha spirinchus, which can probably be called the Peipsi spelt. Also means ink or dye, with Täis kui tint (lit. as full as ink, go figure) meaning as drunk as a lord. Tallinn, city of multiple delights and trivially-priced vodka, is a routine destination for stag weekends with all its attendant rutting behavior. One Londoner, hauled before the courts for creating a disturbance, attempted to dodge responsibility by describing his state as “drunk as a judge”, not perhaps the most ingratiating parallel to express under the circumstances. Blasé, the magistrate asked: “Don’t you mean ‘drunk as a lord’?”, to which he replied “Yes, my lord.” Located in a decidedly fishy street-name zone, and named some 70 years before the other, the fish connection may be incidental. May have referred to a former ink (Tinte in German) or dye manufacturer or even a (dry) cleaning co (cf. French teinturier), or, possibly, still in the courts, to the ink cap mushroom, aka the “lawyer’s wig”, which rapidly deliquesces to release its spores, spilling a lot of ink along with its seed. Be this as it may, part of a fish group. See also Tursa.
