Home
Kangru (Kangur)
Weaver, named after nearby textile plant initially called Balti Puuvillavabrik (wool factory) (1898-1941). Underwent major destruction in WWII but phoenixed out and awarded the Order of the October Revolution in 1976 so there’s that… From ’41, there followed a series of name changes involving (or not) ‘Balti Manufaktuur’ until 1995, when acquired (?) and renamed as Baltex 2000 until its closure and loss of several hundred jobs in 2006. See Manufaktuuri, Ketraja and Sitsi. Another translation is ‘heap of granite’. Although the ‘heap of granite’ belies yet another reality. A kangur is also a Bronze age (8-7th-C BCE) burial ground, stone barrow or cairn-grave, where the dead were laid, head facing north, eyes towards the sun. There is a large site in Jõelähtme at ///disavows.fleshes.troll, some 20 km east of Tallinn town center. Estonia has five villages called Kangru.
Kannustiiva (Kannustiib)
Two sorts: jalaka-kannustiib, the white letter hairstreak, Strymonidia w-album; and toominga-kannustiib, the black hairstreak butterfly, S. pruni. Part of a swarm of butterflies in the Lepiku District. Why are their young called caterpillars and not buttermaggots? (Actually, the word comes from Old French: chatepelose, hairy cat, reminiscent of woolly bears, see Piksepeni), later modified by the verb piller, to pillage, plunder, reflected in the Estonian name: röövik, plunderer, robber, etc.). See also Kedriku.
Kantsi (Kants)
Citadel, stronghold, bulwark, tower. Named after former military training facilities.
Käokannu (Käokannus)
Toadflax. Lit. cuckoo’s spur, Linaria spp. Two species common to Estonia: harilik käokannus, common toadflax, or ‘butter-and-eggs’, L. vulgaris, and joonik käokannus, pale toadflax, L. repens, both, oddly, seemingly, also known as common chaenorhinum.
