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Börsi (Börs)
Exchange, stock exchange. Once known by the name of Kilstoa kangialune or guildhall archway. German Börse (stock exchange > purse), French bourse and English purse share the same etymology, from Greek βύρσα (býrsa), hide, leather, through low Latin bursa, small bag with drawstrings (hence expression ‘to purse one’s lips’) in which money was kept, to modern-day purse and stock exchange. The story of a 14th‑C Bruges family, van de Borse or Van Der Burse, at whose house local and Venetian merchants used to meet and do business may well be apocryphal or incidental. Popular French etymology has often suggested that the bourse was kept against the groin, a site of great physical sensitivity and awareness and, true to form, one of the earliest uses (1278) of the term bourse (Mod. Fr. les bourses) was scrotum. And where better to keep a bag containing your valuables than next to another bag containing your valuables?
Dunkri
(Hans Dunker, 16th C)
Although Dunker is an old Germanic name for someone who lived near a swamp – historically, pretty much applicable to anyone in Estonia – it seems this was a 16th‑C merchant, originally from Lübeck, prime city of the Hanseatic League, as well as Tafelbruder (see Eppingi torn) and/or alderman. Having been the street’s name for the past 400-odd years, it has inevitably been wrangled into cosier interpretations: Drunckerstraße (1528), possibly, but not 100% sure, ‘drunkard’s street’, the word was sometimes used for ‘drunk’ at about that time, along with drunkener (1400-50), drunkerner (1501) and drunck (±1600); then Dunkelstraße or Темная ул. (Temnaya), dark street (1701, etc.), and whatever the Estonian frontal cortex believed Tunkle ulits (1732) to be. Renamed during the Soviet occupation as Vilde E. (1950-1963) then Vana Tooma (1963-1987). Prior to all this, things get a bit muddled, causing many a sleepless night... Its earliest date (1378) is given by Kivi who says it was known as platea qua itur ad sanctum Nicolaum in opposito putei, or road which goes to Saint Nicholas’, passing by the well (möödudes kaevust) but this looks like a mistake. The main source material here is Nottbeck III II, and my take on this, and I could be wrong, is that Nottbeck was describing the location of a property “opposite the well on the road to Saint Nicholas’”, a point he emphasizes by his comment in the appendix, vielleicht derselbe (perhaps the same one), presumably the Rataskaev well. In which case the platea would refer to Rataskaevu, not Dunkri. In 1439, it was recorded as klene strate bi den sc(h)oboden, alse men geit na deme sternssode, little street near the shoe-shops (for more on these, see Raekoja plats) by which you go to the sternssode, and in 1443 as (lutke) strate achter der munte, (little) street behind the mint, logical since by then the mint was at Niguliste 6, stretching north to abut onto Dunkri. However, in the 2nd half of the 15th C, the name started shifting again, and now it seems definitely along the lines of Sternestrate achter munte (1463), sternestrate (1469 & 1489), and strate achter der munte (1478), all variations of sterne street behind the mint, the sterne coming from the name of the well in Rataskaevu.
Gümnaasiumi (Gümnaasium)
Secondary school, high school. After the Gustav Adolf Gümnaasium, GAG, in nearby Suur-Kloostri, one of Estonia’s and Europe’s oldest secondary schools, founded by Swedish king Gustav II Adolf as the Reval Gymnasium in 1631. Built on a former catholic monastery.
Hobusepea (Hobusepea)
Horse’s head. Once upon a time, back in the merry 15th C, there lived a man called Hans Hannemann. Hans was a horse trader and, accordingly, the street he lived in became known as Perdekoper (horse-buyer, -trader, cf. MLG köpen, to trade, and mod. Ger. kaufen, to buy). Needless to say, sometime later the kop part of the word was thought to be German Kopf, head (earliest record 1873), leading to Pferdekopfstraße (horse’s head street) and the rest is history. But not quite, the communists’ desire to eliminate any sign of individual leadership, removed the head and converted a noble steed to a nordinary nag: Hobuse (1923-1987). Actually, the Russians called it Конная (horse) back in 1907. Also known in medieval times as, among others, klene strate, alse men to den süstern geit / parva platea quod itur ad moniales (little street through which you go to get to the ‘sisters’). Today, you reach Lai, which used to be Nunne.
