Trahteri (Trahter)

Trahteri (Trahter)

Lit. Tavern, inn, public house. Saagpakk suspects it comes from the Russian or German. EES suggests Esto-Swedish trafter, guesthouse which – given Sweden’s importing of French vocabulary following Napoleon’s installation of Bernadotte as childless King Charles XIV John’s son and heir – probably derived from French traiteur, originally a person providing food for money, purveyor of food, thence restauranteur, now more or less a delicatessen and/or caterer, cf. Italian trattoria. Hence 3 main possibilities: 1) A farm or poolmõis (see Mõisa) just named Trahter (there was an Adami Trahteri tee / Aadamatrahteri koht [stead, seat] a few km east, possibly related); 2) A farm or poolmõis acting as inn. Since there were 2 streets/locations of the same name within 20 m of each other, this one, ‘new’ i.e. Uuetrahtri, also listed as “(Ges.)” or Gesinde (dependency, see Õismäe); and ‘old’, Vanatrahtli, also listed as Kordon, or border post, presumably one set up between Tallinn and Harku under the first Soviet Occupation of 1940-1941; and 3) a combination of both, probably the more likely solution.