Orava (Orav)
Squirrel.
Osja (Osi)
Equisetum, horsetail, Equisetum spp., remarkable survivors from the past. The only known living genus of its kind, this group of plants began evolving in the Middle Devonian (±400 M years ago), becoming a dominant species of the undergrowth of Carboniferous forests, and involuntary contributor to much coal, and still exists today with an almost worldwide distribution. One of a meadow flower or grass group. See Pune.
Osmussaare (Osmussaar)
Lit. ‘malm island’ (its Swedish name of Odensholm, or Odin’s grave, is more romantic). Island 7.5 km off the NW coast of Estonia, 4 km long, uninhabited since the Soviet deportation of 12 farming families, now a nature reserve. Part of an Estonian island group, see Saaremaa.
Õuna (Õun)
Apple. Street in Nõmme. There used to be an Õuna between Imanta and Lembitu, known as Kasutini or Кашутинская ул after local property owner until 1922, and as õhk:õhu (air, atmosphere) in 1940-41. There is a touch of mixed-blood foreign ancestry to both õun and its southern cousin, ubin. The former possibly Indo-Iranian and the latter possibly proto-Baltic, perhaps a conflation with uba (see Oa). When the spud arrived in Estonia in the mid-18th C, northerners called it maaõun and southerners maaubin, both calqued on German Erdäpfel (earth apple). Oddly, Livonian, more in the southern range, chose ounõmōŗa (‘apple’ berry) for raspberry (see Vabarna, see also Maasika and Kaarla).