Harusambla (‘Harusammal’?)

Not traced. Given its location in the middle of a field of mosses, clearly assumed to be one of them. But what? Possibly a conflation of h[arilik k]arusammal, great goldilocks or common hair/haircap moss, Polytrichum commune (but Karusammal:Karusambla is already used), or an unrecorded name for one of the broom mosses, Dicranum spp., whose stems fork (haru = branch, fork, prong). Possibly a mistranscription for harilik hallsamblik, Hypogymnia physodes. Possibly a vernacular for any spreading moss (haruma, to branch out). Unlikely, but maybe an accidental rendition of haruhärmik, Green Mountain Fringe-moss, Racomitrium fasciculare (rare in Estonia anyway)? Either way, to quote Asta Põldmäe^*: “This small old country was frightfully mossy!”. Estonia has 558-odd varieties of moss. Discounting close relatives of the greater-, lesser-, speckled- sort, there remain 186. Of these, 67 – or one third – are called mis-ta-n’d-oligisammal (thingamajig moss). So it’s not as if they had no choice. None of them, however, is called harusammal. I cannot state with certainty that the word does not exist (all the more so since it does in this street-name) but, as black swans go, the genetics are recent. According to a bryologist at Tartu University: “Sammalde eestikeelsete nimede hulgas sammaltaime nimega harusammal ei ole.” (loosely translated: “Ain’t no bryophyte plant called harusammal among Estonian names for mosses.”). One of a group of moss-named streets. See Karusambla. And not in Tallinn in the first place, but Laagri, although leading west off Möldre, so not that far.

^* See Baltic Belles: The Dedalus Book of Estonian Women's Literature, ed. Elle-Mari Talivee, www.dedalusbooks.com

Aaviku (Aavik)

Found on some maps of Tallinn, where it doesn’t exist, but does in nearby Rae. Named after a farm and not, regrettably, after the best known of the Aavik family: Johannes (1880-1973), inventor of numerous language reforms and neologisms (oddly, the ones most people recall, dare we raise the cranial lid on the Estonian subconscious, are relv, weapon, from revolver, and mõrv, murder, from German Mord), as well as translator (although some would say ‘re-writer’) of Maupassant, Edgar Allen Poe, Turgenev, Mika Waltari, and a dab of Sophocles, Apuleius, etc., An all-round linguist with, in addition to the languages implied above, German, Livonian, Mordvin, Swedish, and varying degrees of familiarity with Arabic, plus other Slavic and Finnic languages... Either way, given Estonia’s istory of ‘H’-denial (see Wiedemann’s orthographically nightmarish dictionary Ehstnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch), the name probably derives from haavik anyway (see Haaviku).

Äia (Äi)

Father-in-law. Along with äio or äiolane (äi:äio in Võru dialect), it also means ‘devil’ and its attendant adjectival consequences: damn, bloody, fuck(ing)... shedding a grim light on Estonian in-law affinities. By the same logic, äiatar, strictly ‘field scabious’ (see Jaanilille), also translates as female devil, as well as, logically, mother-in-law. Curiously, while ‘mother’ in Estonian and Finnish are respectively ema and emä, ‘mom’, ‘mommy’, etc., in Finnish it’s äiti. See Hõimu. Another street fractionally outside Tallinn, in Iru.