Names
Hõimu (Hõim)
Tribe, kith and kin, relative, clan. Estonians cannot effusively be described as the most extrovert or other-person-oriented nation on earth (and how do you tell an Estonian extrovert? It’s the one looking at your shoes). As macadam evidence of this: only three (perhaps four) family type street names in the whole of Tallinn. Along with Sõbra, and Lemmiku, this is the closest they get to relational intimacy and, without any intersection at all, a very socially distant ménage à trois (or quatre) it is too. Being the first country in the world to succeed in avoiding any form of social intercourse during elections by e-voting, one wonders how they reproduce. See Nõo.
Hoo (Hoog)
Momentum, impetus, swing, bout, attack, seizure, dash, verve... – hiigla hooga, quite an evocative way of saying ‘impetuously’.
Hooldekodu (Hooldekodu)
Nursing-home, after which it is named.
Hospidali (Hospidal)
Hospital, infirmary. Close to the East Tallinn Central Hospital Emergency Medicine Department (Ida-Tallinna Keskhaigla Erakorralise Meditsiini Osakond). This sweet little street existed quite happily as it was until, one day, somebody noticed – crashing chords, minor key – it was orthographically incorrect. The ‘d’ should have been ‘t’ and, mutatis mutando, mutato nomine, it metamorphosed into Hospitali. But they had not taken vox pop into account: the locals trashed it and kept on saying ‘d’. The Street-name Commission folded. See Ravi.
