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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).
Paagi (Paak)
1) Beacon, sea mark, buoy; 2) Tank, cistern, water-tower; 3) Lump. Close enough to one of Tallinn’s prime sludge producers on Paljassaare peninsula, so could be any of them but, given it was named along with two (now defunct) neighbors in June 1958 – Taagi and Toodri – all three of which elongated vertical structures, more a sea mark type of beacon than a buoy.
Paakspuu (Paakspuu)
Aka harilik paakspuu, aka mõruuibu (bitter apple-tree, where uibu is probably a shortening of ubinapuu, an older/dialect term for apple-tree, see Õuna and Puu). Commonly known as alder, glossy or breaking buckthorn, black dogwood, Frangula alnus (aka Rhamnus frangula). Having said that, trees are often hard to identify exactly and the term paakspuu may also refer to the black alder (Alnus glutinosa), which micht explain the paak (seamark or beacon), due to its durability under water (same wood used as pilings in [under] Venice, see Paali). Tree/shrub group, see Lõhmuse põik and Pukspuu.







