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Kiire (Kiire)
Ray, as in sun or light. Street now suffering from severe personality disorder. Actually, two distinct streets, sorta, on either side of the railway running alongside Tehnika to Balti Jaam. During the Soviet occupation, Väike-Ameerika (E of tracks) was renamed Kiire (1950-1991) and the existing Kiire was renamed Väike-Kiire (1950-1996). Later (1990), the then Kiire tn from the railway to Tulika along with Kiire põik (W of tracks) were renamed Kotkapoja, and Kiire tn from Tehnika (next to the railway) to Pärnu switched back to Väike-Ameerika) while in 1996 (see Bremeni käik) Väike-Kiire reverted to its original Kiire.
Komeedi (Komeet)
Comet. This was a type example used by Aavik in his Keeleuuendus, or language renovation, for creating new words. To avoid convoluted expressions such as täht, mil saba on (periphrase): star, which has a tail; sabaga täht (syntagm): star with tail; or sabatäht (compound word): tail-star; all of which fail to meet his demand for simplicity, esthetics and efficiency, you pick a new one from selected sources and Bob sinu onu on! It was probably the comet which manifested the adoption of a medieval belief in the money-goblin (perhaps a hand-me-down from old legends of finders of hoards of gold [see Kalevipoja], not forgetting that Estonia has one of the richest collections of hoards in Europe), a helpful little chap that flew about collecting (nicking) milk, butter, grain, etc., for its master and/or causing discord between various parties; names of its multiple manifestations include: Tulihänd, fire-tail; Pisuhänd, spark-tail (also the title of what may be Vilde E.’s best-known play); and Kratt (see Kari). Celestial street-name group, see Kuu. Previously Tähe, (1908-1959) aka Sternstraße (not to be confused with Dunkri) (1907-?), reappearing in 1942 after the III Reich’s February 2nd declaration that German was now the official state language in the besetzten Ostgebiete or Occupied Eastern Territories.
Aia (Aed)
Fence, enclosure, garden, run. However, as in English where ‘garden’ originally meant that which enclosed it, as in, for example, Latin: hortus gardinus, ‘enclosed garden’, deriving from Proto Indo-European (PIE) *gher- ‘to grasp, to enclose’ (cf. Old English geard ‘enclosure, garden, house’, etc.) ultimately giving rise to Old Church Slavonic gradu*, ‘town, city’ and Russian город (gorod), град (-grad), English girdle and yard, and related to PIE *gherdh- ‘staff, pole’. The same seems to apply in Estonian where the aed originally meant an enclosure made of pickets (cf. Finnish aita, fence). Only Tallinn street name a palindrome in the genitive, but not the nominative. Rare in existing in 3 varieties. For details, see, in reverse alphabetical order: Aia [tänav], Aia [tee] and Aia [käik].
* Given the complications of displaying ‘exotic’ scripts online, here Glagolitic, see, and ideally buy, A Rambling Dictionary of Tallinn Street Names (all author earnings from the book go to the Tallinna Lastehaigla Toetusfond (Tallinn Children’s Hospital Foundation, set up to aid purchase medical equipment), allowing you to contemplate, with wonder I hope, one of humanity's multiple endeavors at reproducing the infinite subtleties of speech in a pathetic 20-odd alphabet.
Inseneri (Insener)
Engineer. Named after the Insenerimaja (Engineers’ House), at the end of the street (Uus 10).
