Names
Hansu (Hans)
Uncertain. TAAK gives it as the name of a former farm (which does seem to be the case), but not listed as such in KNAB. According to Hamilton’s 3rd Law of Odonymy (see Aedvere) and the street’s year of naming (2004), it could (should?) be named after Käsu Hans (?-1715/1734), one of the earlier poets in the Estonian vernacular and writer of the first surviving poem (1708) by an Estonian in Estonian (Tartu dialect). Cast in the middle of the Great Northern War, Oh! ma waene Tardo liin (Oh! Poor Tartu town I am), the town speaks for itself and tells its tale of woe. Interestingly, despite Tartu being then more commonly known by its Germanized name of Dorpat, Hans uses Tardo/Tarto (according to print version[?]), derived from its original Estonian name of Tarbatu. Estonian ‘t’s and ‘d’s are often interchangeable, see Hospidali.
Hao (Hagu)
Stick, twig, narrow branch (cut down and) used for firewood, brushwood. Known as Paluka, lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, until 1970. But… Given Estonian’s uneven relationship with aspirates, Ao, pre-dawn light, dawn or daybreak, raises interesting parallels in the sense of beginnings. Close to this, other FU language cognates suggest weak, insipid (and hence easily exploited) trees: Veps hago (windbreak), Votic hako (weathered tree), Ludian hago (flawed tree)… (beware, I have an agenda!) And with Estonian borrowing Finnish hakeri, designating a sorry state of a home, as hagerik, a sort of poor man’s lean-to, and the word’s proximity to hakkama (to start), (tule)hakatis (lighting a fire, kindling) and hakatama (to start, or to set on fire, think assarting), we’re getting a sense of primeval colonisation of place. This is the cusp of history and civilization. And could be completely wrong. One of a fire-making group. See Pinu. See also Hagudi.
