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Rätsepa (Rätsep)
Tailor, from rätt (and Sepa), today used more in the sense of kerchief (cloth being riie [giving riided, clothes], lapp [used more in cleaning contexts], or kangas [fabrics, material]), but might have had a broader meaning in the past. Earliest street-name records give Johann Retsepp (1725) but, given the variability in 18th-C name spelling and change (e.g. Johannes or Jaan and Rätsep(p) or Schneider), he remains untraced. One of an occupational street-name group. See Jahimehe.
Ratta (Ratas)
Wheel. Parallel to Rulli. Probably loaned from Lithuanian ratas (before the arrival of Ger. Rad), and fairly widespread across FU languages, this is quite an ancient loan. The plural, in Est. as well as Latv., Lith., Finn. and other FU languages is often wagon or cart. In Est. as in Eng., the same pl. may also mean car. Russian ‘wheel’, колесо́ (kolesó), on the other hand, is related to Eng. cycle, and Anc. Gk κύκλος (circle), whose pl. κύκλοι or κύκλα, also became ‘wheels’… These, along with Eng. ‘car’ – via French < Latin < Gaulish karros from PIE root *kers- ‘to run’ – are related to PIE *kʷel-1 or *kʷelǝ-, to turn or revolve, as is (prob.) also French ‘neck’, cou.
Petrooleumi (Petrooleum)
Petroleum. Street created/named around 1904 after the Nobel Brothers’ petroleum depot. Albert did not make all his money from dynamite and gelignite, far from it: he and his brothers Ludvig (and later his son Emanuel) and Robert were among the world’s leading oil barons, with some 50% of global oil production coming from their company Branobel in Baku, Azerbaijan. Formerly known as Kerosini or Kerossini, part of an oil street-name group. See Bensiini. One-time location of Tallinn’s main station for trains to the south: Felliner Bahnhof II aka Willjandi Waksal II aka Reval-Hafenbahnhof aka Tallinn-Sadama raudteejaam. See Tallinn-Türi.
Lõvi (Lõvi)
Lion, symbol of local Pioneeride battalion.
