Kauba (Kaup)

Goods, wares, merchandise, due to street leading to Tallinn-Väike. A mongrel loanword to say the least. Earliest focal root is probably Lat. caupo (innkeeper or trader), synonymous or shared with copo (the female of which is copa, ±barmaid*), and seems to have spread northward with Roman soldiers, becoming *kaupa-n (to trade/trader) in West Germanic, evolving into the usual culprits of Ger. Kauf, Swedish köp, etc., as well as Old Eng. cīepa and cēap, ending up as ‘cheap’. It spread north-eastward to Dan. Copenhagen, København (±trading ‘haven’, but see Hobusepea) of earliest recorded name (11^th C ) Køpmannæhafn (Traders’/Merchants’ harbor). Further east again, it lent itself to Finnish for ‘city’, kaupunki (market place), via an archaic dialect or earlier Eastern Scandinavian *köupungR or Old Gutnish *kaupunger. Street previously called Frachtstraße / Waarenstraße (freight or goods, in Ger.), and Товарная (other than its smiling brotherly ‘Comrade’, Rus. Tovarich seems also to have meant someone with whom a sharing of goods or commodities, property or cattle, was involved).

* That Lat. cupa or cuppa (large wooden jar or barrel), generating Eng. cup, Fr. coupe, etc., is related is both very tempting but uncertain.

Kaubamaja (Kaubamaja)

Department store, lit. ‘purchase house’. Renamed (?-1991), along with Rävala (1950-1991), as Lenini during the Soviet occupation.

Kauge (Kauge)

Far, far off, distant, remote. Which it is, if you live within 5 or 6 km of Ahmedabad.

Kauka (Kaugas)

Shirt pocket, pouch, large breast-pocket. Originally named Kaupmehe põik (-1959) then Vakmanni R. (1959-1991) during the Soviet occupation. Odd name that doesn’t seem to match its neighbors, unless you look at the map of footpaths in the adjacent Lembitu Park…

Kauna (Kaun)

Pod, hull, legume. Named more or less collectively with Herne and Oa.