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Loite (Loide)
Fire, blaze. In this particular case, a solar flare. A checkered history: Lessingi, Lessingstraße, Лессингская ул., from 1884-1938, then Leegi, also fire, blaze, until 1939, flipping to Flammenstraße in 1942, when perhaps some confusion with a Nõmme street of the same name caused a switch, first to Vine, haze or wisp, which lasted for a year (1959) before settling on its present name in 1960.
Loode (Loe)
North-west, northwesterly (also high tide, neap tide or, plural, looded, tide, ebb and flow). Also noordvest or nordvest among sailors. Compass point with a twist! Loode is possibly derived from Proto-Finnic *loodeh giving Finnish luode, northwest (itself possibly related to Finnish luoja, creator, or to a hypothetical verb such as *luotaa, to descend), Karelian luuveh for west or southwest, Livonian lūod and Ludian luodeh for vanilla west, and back to Veps and Votic with lode / lodeh and loo / looto / looõ for northwest or west, or just as possibly derived from MLG lēden, to lead, and cognate with modern English lode. During the Middle Ages, the ‘Viking compass’ was rotated some 45° to 60° clockwise from the true, geographical compass, with norðr referring to northeast, not north, and northwest thus pointing north to the Lodestar (aka Polaris or North Star), which might explain why Estonian has actual, i.e. non-compound, names for the intercardinal directions (NE, SE, etc.) which, for them, were cardinal, see Edela. Formerly (1885-1923) Nürnbergi. See also Vesikaare.
Luise (Luise)
After the nearby summer estate called Luisental, after Louise von Steinheil, owner in 1791. By this time, France was on its 16th King Louis, and the name had had plenty of time to become fashionable.
Liivamäe (Liivamägi)
Sandy hill, mountain. Earliest record gives German Auf dem Sande and Russian На пескахъ (1881), then Estonian Liiva mäel and Liiva peal (1885), all meaning ‘on the sands’. Over time, the meaning shifted to ‘hill’/’mountain’, as in Auf dem Sandberge / Песочная гора (1890), hinting at a shift of meaning from ‘on’ or ‘on top of’ to that which this might be, irrespective of topology, perhaps also suggesting a change in naming conventions from one based on experience to one simply read about. In a sense, this matches current pronunciations of uncommon words which increasingly depend on reading rather than hearing. The earlier names were long used for various general sandy areas before used for streets. Another earlier designation was Auf dem Sande bei den drei Kreutzen (on the sand near the three crosses) and seems to refer to other crosses memorializing Blackheads who died in a clash with Russians in 1560-09-11 (see Marta). See Mäe for discussion.







