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Laugu (Lauk)
Four possibilities: 1) Common coot, Fulica atra, breeds in Estonia; 2) Leek (often porrulauk); 3) Blaze (on a horse’s head) or blazed horse; 4) Parting (of the hair). All these are related by the idea of a vertical white slash of color: on the frontal part of the head for coots, with their white ‘frontal shield’ (featherless ‘plate’ of skin from the top of the bill to the forehead, hence “bald as a coot”), and horses, various FU cognates refer to bulls, cows or other blazed animals; and leeks are typified by a white upper region. As to hair, since it could suggest dark hair parting to reveal a pale forehead, it may represent a word dating back to before the stereotypical Scandinavian blond hair became a widely acquired and inherited feature. Although the genetic mutation for blond hair seems to date to about 11000 BP, it might not have become widespread until about 6000 BP. Street named in 1953 but never, apparently, built.
Leningradi (Leningrad)
Soviet renaming of the city of Saint-Petersburg (name we’ll prefer to use), and Soviet occupation renaming (1948-1992) of Peterburi.
Võistluse (Võistlus)
Competition, rivalry. Named after the Komsomol Stadium, now known as Kalevi Keskstaadion. Formerly known as Aafrika (1885-1955) for its fields of shifting-sand (dunes?) associated with or, strangely, reminiscent of Africa.
Veskiposti (Veskipost)
Aka Lutheri Post. Station on the former Tallinn-Viljandi narrow-gauge railway. Short for Veskipostijaam, where postijaam was a combination railway station cum postal service, as in stage post, probably named after a former watermill on the nearby now-covered Härjapea river. Bearing in mind that milling, or the authority to mill, used to be the apanage of a knight, noble or other member of the ruling-class, this would probably have originated as a kõrvalmõis (see Mõisa).
