Names
Apteegi (Apteek)
Chemist’s, pharmacy, apothecary’s. Named after Tallinn’s oldest, the nearby Raeapteegi mentioned as far back as 1422. Apteegi as street name was first given in municipal records of 1611 as Apoteker Gasse, with later (1614) marginalia alters die Lütke Schröder Strasse (formerly the Little Tailor’s street). Prior to this (1389), the street was known/described as parva platea sartorum, qua itur de foro ad monachos (little road of the ‘tailors’ [see below], which goes from the market to the monks, i.e., today, to Vene), and before that (1368) platea monachorum, road of the monks, these being the Dominican Friars (see Dominiiklaste). Note on tailors... the Latin sartor indicates someone who repairs, and stitching wounds to Saville Row is as far as barbers to surgeons (cf. the red and white spiraled barber’s pole: red for blood-letting and white for bandages). So the street probably specialized in buttons and bones, leeches and breeches. Makes you glad to live in the 21st‑C.
Arbu (Arp)
Word with twofold, connected meaning: ‘lot’ (i.e. something drawn at random) and magic, contrivance. In Saaremaa and probably other areas too, when common land was shared among villagers, the plots were distributed by lots (cf. alloting, allotment). Arb:arva was the term for the narrow plot used in strip-farming, which, given the chance involved in terms of quality, location, farmability, etc., understandably evolved into its later meaning (but might it have been the other way round?). A similar relationship exists between English ‘lot’ (chance) and ‘lot’ (of land). Arbujad (sorcerers, soothsayers, shamans) was an influential group of Estonian poets (often called ‘Magicians of the Word’ in English) created in 1938, whose rather anti-totalitarian attitude did not endear them to the censors. Rebaptized (1979-1995) as Võrgu V. during the Soviet occupation. Part of a magico-mythological group. See Kahu.
