Viru tänav (Viru)

Earliest records (1362) give this as Leymstrate, Lemstrate and a variety of permutations all meaning ‘clay street’ (about which, see Kopli), evolving through to modern German Lehmstraße (1907) which, with lehm meaning cow/cattle in Estonian, and this street leading into Suur-Karja, should have led to at least some confusion but, confusingly, didn’t. Spelled wirro wärraw in the 18th C (1732), and called Нарвская ул., Narva road, from 18th C to early 20th C, with interlude as Uus-Viru (1908). The name Viru is, obviously, deep-rooted in the Estonian consciousness. But perhaps not as deeply as that... Virland is mentioned in various Icelandic sagas, Viro is Finnish for Estonia (taken, originally, from the name of North Estonia, see Ugala) and Finnish vireä means alert, brisk, lively, vivacious, hale and hearty, etc., so it may well have originated from self-designation as ‘true/real beings/people’ (as opposed to others) or, going further back, the Finno-Ugric proto word for ‘live’, ‘life’, *elä, (questionably [i.e. quite possibly not] related to Etruscan ala, ‘vital’, ‘lively’), cf. too, Hungarian elev-en, ‘lively’, and Vepsian elo, ‘life’. EES suggests a relation to vire, sharp, gusty wind (which, despite the connection to sharp, i.e. alert, brisk, etc, I find unlikely). Another possiblilty is a loan from one the descendents of PIE *wi-ro- or *wiHrós, man (from *weiə-, vital force), which also gave man in Latin, vir, and thence not only English virile but also were, man, as in werewolf (see Kitzbergi A.), as well as in Lithuanian vyras and Latvian vīrs. EES suggests this for both Viru and Võro with the additional possibility of võõras, foreign, cf. Livonian vȫrõz. Not impossible, and they wouldn’t be the first people to come to be known in that way. Exonyms, or names given one people by another people, are not uncommon: Wales and the Welsh, for example, ultimately derive from Proto-Germanic *Walhaz (for people of the western Roman empire, whether Celtic or Latin) which also led to Cornwall, Walloon, Gaul and Galatian (as well as walnut, or foreign nut, once known in England ca.1300 as noiz ffraunceys, or French nut [in Est. it’s Kreeka pähkel or Greek nut] and, borrowed into Old Church Slavonic as vlachu, to the Romanian Vlachs and Wallachians, and well as Russian Валах (Valah) for Romanians in general. If võõras is a Baltic loanword, perhaps it followed a similar route to English foreign, from PIE roots to something akin to Medieval Latin foranus, on the outside, exterior. With only minor chin-twisting the two words võõras and foranus do sound similar. Another term Estonians use(d) to describe themselves is maarahvas/maamees, or people/men of the land. At the same time, their (remaining) neighboring Vironians, a coastal people, use a similar designation, mõ-mīed, men of the land, to designate Latvians, as distinct from themselves, kalamīed, men of the fish, or fishermen. The two present-day counties of Ida-Viru and Lääne-Viru cover the approximate original homeland of the Vironians.

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