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Kiek in de Kök (0) 
Usually translated as “peep in the kitchen”, although ‘look’, cf. German gucken or kucken, might be more appropriate. Said to derive from Low Saxon kijk in de keuken. Earliest recorded spelling (1577) was Kyck in de Kaeken. Explanations revolve around its uncommon height of 38 m setting it so far above neighboring houses’ chimneys that the guards could either see, at a stretch, straight down into the kitchens, or see what the enemy was cooking, their kitchens being furthest from the front. My personal suspicion, however, given later (and central to southern) German words such as Guckindiewelt (2nd half 18th C) and northern German variant Kiekindiewelt, curious child, Topfgucker, Nosy Parker, lit. saucepan peeker and, particularly, Guckfenster, Judas window, spyhole, peephole (recorded 16th C), of which the tower has many, is that the name means just a small kitchen- or observation-window and the tower was named by metonymy. See also Kuldjala torn.
Kangrupere (Kangrupere)
2023 addition to Tallinn’s streets, but still to be built, named after former farm or manor house. Location (District & Sub-district) to be advised.
Käokõrva (Käokõrv)
Lit. cuckoo’s ear. Aka Käosamblik. Cetraria, a lichen, for which the genus has no common name. Five species common to Estonia: harilik käokõrv, lit. common cetraria, Cetraria sepincola (Tuckermanopsis sepincola?); islandi käokõrv, Icelandic moss, only cetraria with an English name, C. islandica, see Põdrasambla; kitsas käokõrv, lit. slender cetraria, C. ericetorum; põõsasjas käokõrv, lit. bushy cetraria, C. muricata, almost exclusively Estonian, with odd occurrences in neighboring islands; and sarv-käokõrv, lit. horn cetraria; C. aculeata. Street scheduled 2020 for building off Kalda, with name chosen in preference to Kilpjala and Raunjala.
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 tranlsated: “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







