Home
Malmi (Malm)
Cast iron, after local iron foundry. First known in Rus. as Чугунная (1900), then Malmi (1908) and last Ger. Gußeisenstraße (1913). Scrap iron is malmimurd (see Väomurru). The word also designates a sort of loamy earth especially good for brick-making. Prolonged by Valgevase. Home also to the Havanna Tobacco company (±1930s), your Cuba in Tallinn manufacturer of the fine brand of “Merci” papirosa ‘cigarettes’ guaranteed to burn your tongue and rot your lungs. Thank you too!
Mändmetsa J. (Jakob Mändmets, 1871-1930)
Writer. Author of short stories about village life. Contributor to the Tartu Postimees (newspaper founded as Perno Postimees in 1857, moving name and offices to Tartu in 1886, today’s non-regional Postimees is Estonia’s biggest-selling newspaper) and Tallinn’s Uus Aeg (a short-lived [1899-1905] liberal-democratic weekly). Editor (1906-1910) of Päevaleht (newspaper of chequered history and fortunes [1905-1940]). Died on Christmas Day, acquiring a past for a present.
Mängu (Mäng)
Play, game, toy. Named after a nearby fairground area, hence its immediate neighbors. Part of a mini game-name area. See Näituse.
Männi (Mänd)
Pine. harilik mänd, Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris. Commonest tree in Estonia: almost 40% of Estonian trees are pine. First known as Promenaadi until 1922, and thence to its current name via Männa, from Männas (1926-1927), meaning either ‘verticil’, a whorl or circular arrangement of, e.g., petals on a flower or leaves on a stem, or from Männa, also from Mänd, meaning a wooden whisk, possibly pine (but see Masti). Either way, next came the expected 1940-1941 switch to Ladva (from Latv), meaning treetop or... vertex.
