Visase (Visane?)

Name of a former farm along whose border the road now runs. But what the name means is obscure. In the coastal region of Kuusalu some 20-50 km east of Tallinn, visane means pus-producing, suppurating or weeping (as in wounds) but one could happily imagine a dynasty of agriculturalists preferring a more client-friendly appellation. And the only other locations with Visase in their names are two very exciting fields in Pärnumaa: Ülem- and Alem-Visase (upper- and lower-Visase). So, we don’t have much to go by. Visa is a Finnish surname and possibly the closest geographically, but no evidence to this effect. The Eesti kohanimeraamat (Estonian placenames dictionary) provides one or two possible origins: Visse, a personal name recorded in 1744 as Wissi, then Wiissi and Vissi, etc., from the southern half of Estonia in the villages of Võnnu (Tartumaa) and Kiidjärv (Põlvamaa); while in Valgjärve (Põlvamaa), some 15 km further west, there was another Vissi, recorded in 1582 and 1601 as Wiesth and Wisse respectively. The suggestion that the latter comes from Polish wiesęcę, an obscure word said to mean ‘notice’ or ‘rumor’, seems unlikely, but it could come from the Livonian name, Vesithe. And while this area, loosely, was one of Old Believer immigration from Russia (see Sikuti), a derivative of Vissarion (Виссарио́н) is tempting but would require a clear post-1666 dating to apply. Without historical dating, there’s a minor multitude of other possible source names: Wiesenau, Wierecke, Wiessle, Wieso, Visela, Vysell, Wizylla, etc... Yet another, for post 17th-C namings, is a derivative of the then increasingly popular French name Louis, generating Luise, hence Lovissa, the diminutive or short form of which is Viisa, although it’s hard to imagine the Sun King ploughing the sod (not that sort) in his pretty little shoes of which he had 5000 pairs, but I digress. My last shot, with no pretensions to exactitude, is a possible offshoot of visa (meaning tough, tenacious, gritty or, in the case of diseases: obstinate, not too far in meaning from our festering sore above, etc.). If anyone offers you a better explanation, I’d take their word for it. All this comes under what I call the Lost Art of Forgetting.