Names
Viige (?)
Old farm name. As to actual meaning?... Viiga and Viigi are recorded as forenames in the Tartu region. Plenty for viik:viigi: fig (not that common in the Tropics of Vismeistri), draw or tie, tapeworm, and crease. Another dialectal meaning of viik:viigi is bay or cove, which makes vague sense, the street is roughly between Kakumäe and Kopli bays, about 2 & 1 km respectively, but still i not e. Wiedemann has wigl/wiglas:wigla for pitchfork (with more than 2 prongs); and wigle:wigle for godwit or snipe; so lots of straw-clutching but little concrete which is hardly the best choice when you’re sinking anyway… Last shot: I’ll suggest an unrecorded genitive of an old(?) Estonian man’s name Viik(us), which could legitimately genitivize as Viige (see Luige and Kiige).
Viimsi (Viimsi)
Name of a small borough and manor house (German: Wiems) located a few km east of Tallinn, first mentioned in 1471. Settlements date back to late Bronze Age.
Viiralti E.
(Eduard Viiralt [Wiiralt], 1898-1954)
One of Estonia’s more outstanding artists, born in St Petersburg province. A “sympathetic, balanced and humble man” (Toivo Miljan: Historical Dictionary of Estonia), Viiralt spent most of his life in Paris (and, buried in Père-Lachaise cemetery, death too), traveling widely, leaving a significant collection of drawings and prints. It has been suggested that absinthe was not a million miles away from his copperplate of Põrgu, Hell. Has a tree in Viljandi named after him for a 1943 drawing he did, Viljandi maastik (Viljandi landscape), a copy of which recently sold at auction for just over €11,000. Street previously known as Janseni, Jannseni, etc, (1924-59), see Jannseni J.V.
Viirpuu (Viirpuu)
The Hawthorn, none of the Estonian species seem to have an English name, so I’ll create some and see what that does to the botanical nomenclature:
- Daugava viirpuu, Divine hawthorn, C. dunensis
- Eesti viirpuu, Lumpy hawthorn, C. estonica
- Harilik viirpuu, Basic hawthorn, C. rhipidophylla
- Kupfferi viirpuu, Trouty hawthorn, C. kupfferi
- Kuramaa viirpuu, de Troyes’ hawthorn, Crataegus curonica
- Lääne-viirpuu, facepalm hawthorn, C. palmstruchii
- Lindmani viirpuu, Harpy hawthorn, C. lindmanii
- Rand-viirpuu, Holiday hawthorn, C. maritima
- Saaremaa viirpuu, WeirdO hawthorn, C. osiliensis
- Viidumäe viirpuu, Tarry-up-the-Hill Hawthorn, C. viidumaegica.
Viisi (Viis)
Looks like a loan word from French vis, but derived from MLG wise, meaning (as well as mode, fashion, way, manner…, think ‘likewise’) melody, tune or air, which, next to Lauliku, it is. Note too that viis:viie means 5.
Vikerkaare (Vikerkaar)
Rainbow.
