Kiige (Kiik)
Swing. Made of wood, the traditional Estonian swing took on as many passengers as a Greek motorcycle and provided a similar degree of adrenalin. Today, higher, more evolved and distinctly more singular, an Estonian sport, kiiking, where the participant must swing 360° over the top bar. There seem to be three species of kiik: 1) the previously-mentioned mainframe version; 2) the pöörkiik or ‘rotary’ kiik with cord attached to the top of a pole and seats at the bottom; and 3) the poor man’s version, the kiigelaud, basically a plank across a log. Having killed at least 3 children in the past 800 years, Europe has deemed Estonia’s traditional swings unsafe, and therefore illegal. Cars, on the other hand... Street located near site of former kiik. Street first known as Aia aka Gartenstraße and Садовая ул. (1926-59) (see Uus), with 2 temporary renamings as Ploomi (1940-41) and Ale (1959-60), see Alemaa.
Kiili (Kiil)
Dragonfly. The larvae are unique in the insect world for using jet-propulsion, ejecting water from the anus to achieve speeds of up to 10 cm per second. Doesn’t work: I tried it in the swimming-pool and they asked me to leave… Part of a small groups of insects, placed appetizingly next to a horde of insectivorous rodents and birds... See also Kuklase.
Kiive (Kiive)
One of the numerous alternative or dialectal names for kiivitaja, the lapwing. Other local names include hirmutaja (the ‘frightener’), kiivits, poola kana (Polish chicken), sookajak (marsh gull), tillvitt, tüvitaja and vaenulind (hostile bird). Nice reputation. Two species breed in Estonia:
- kiivitaja, northern lapwing, aka peewit, etc., Vanellus vanellus
- valgesaba-kiivitaja, white-tailed lapwing, V. leucurus
Its rather loose translations sometimes give ‘plover’ but this is a member of the not quite settled subfamily Charadriinae which includes the lapwing, dotterel and plover. According to Kivi, the street was named after the bird often seen on former city commons and should have been Kiivitaja. Why a relatively obscure dialect term was chosen is unclear. The word also translates as ‘lateral torsional buckling’. Hope that helps.
Kikkapuu (Kikkapuu)
Spindle tree, Euonymus spp., the common or European spindle, Euonymus europaeus, occurs in southern Estonia. Its name comes from using its hard wood for making spindles for spinning wool. (PSA: the English ‘-(d)le’ is probably a ‘frequentative’ ending used for repeated actions such as in hand leading to handle, nose to nuzzle, or sniff to sniffle. Given the shape of a spindle, and since kikk can also mean ‘erect’, I suspected it might also represent another common slang word but, no, the slang for cock or prick seems to be munn (muna also means ‘penis’ in Ludian, Khanti, Selkup and apparently Hungarian), which is quite surprising because of its similarity to muna (egg), and muna or munand (testicle), between which two meanings it hovers from one FU (sorry, not the right context for certain abbreviations) Finno-Ugric language to another. Tree/shrub group, see Kontpuu.