Hiiu-Suurtüki (Hiiu-Suurtükk)

Hiiu cannon. Big gun. Follow me on this one... For years, the street lived as blameless an existence a thoroughfare called Cannon could live. Then came the annus mirabilis of Tallinn toponymy when, one warm 2^nd July 1987, a wave of counter-revolution took to the streets and reclaimed its own: in the municipal zeal to delete the memory of communist nasties, the old-town street name Käsperti J. reverted to its original of Suurtüki. But this dominoed to Nõmme where another Suurtüki existed already (probably after the cannons set up by for Peter the Great’s Naval Fortress (see Vabaduse). To solve matters, this one was cropped to Tüki (if suurtükk is a cannon, maybe tükk is just a can?). Actually, it means ‘piece’, ‘bit’, ‘lump’ or ‘fragment’, and ‘piece’ is also a piece of weaponry (cf. French pièce légère: light gun, pièce de bord: naval gun, etc., etc.), and the words are thus synonyms. Either way, hinting that a respectable street could also mean ‘lump of mud road’ may well have displeased the residents, and on December 4^th it switched back to its former name, with the Hiiu- modifier (hargtäiend) appended in front. Quite enough done.