Home
Sõjamäe (Sõjamägi) 
Tricky, literally War Hill, its meaning could range from Soldiers’ Knoll, Martial Mountain, Battle Bump, to Bruise. Military vantage point / observation post sounds good too (see Mäe for discussion). Most faithful, however, is Battle Hill, named after what is believed to be the site of a battle following the Jüriöö Ülestõus (St. George’s Night Uprising) of 1343-04-23 where the Teutonic Order killed some 3000 Estonians in an orgy of attrition and revenge (see Lasnamäe). Streets today come in all sizes: Väike-Sõjamäe, Kesk-Sõjamäe and Suur-Sõjamäe, formerly V-, K & S-Weimarschofi after manor house belonging to master butcher Johann Weymar (1815), but native Estonians long preferred the Sõjamäe variants or even, according to TT, in the 18th C, Tapomäe, where Tapo seems to come from tapp:tapa, slaughter or murder. To trivialize the uprising, the German overlords renamed or nicknamed Sõjamäe as Seamäe (Pig Hill), Schweinsberg in German, sometime in the 19th C. The name can still be seen on the 1914 map of Tallinn accompanying Baedeker’s Russia, with Teheran, Port Arthur, and Peking; handbook for travellers. Sure, that worked…
Sõbra (Sõber)
Friend. Parallel to Lemmiku. Strange entry where my original version got it completely wrong: [[“Considered by some to be derived from MLG sobbenhunt, young dog. But poss. a Baltic loanword, cf. Rus. собака (sobáka), Lith. šuo, and Latv. suns. Koer on söbber senni kui pead sillitad, a dog is your friend as long as you stroke its head.”]]. The opposite seems to be the case. Word and often-related meaning shared across FU languages, where Votic seems to encapsulate the essence of its footprint: ‘friend, girlfriend; trading partner across the Gulf of Finland’; with Finnish seura (society; company); Veps sõbr (‘association, artel; work done jointly’); and Wiedemann’s 100-year-old Estonian, also sõbr (Freund, Geliebter, Gönner, Kunde, i.e. friend, lover, patron, customer). There may have been earlier loans to or from MLG, Prussian and Lithuanian, but I’m incapable of analysing them. Comments or pointers welcome.
Šnelli tiik (Šchnell)
(Johann Schnell, 1821-1890)
Pond named after a man often claimed to be Tallinn town gardener but, there being no records of him in the municipal books, it seems he was ‘just’ a market-gardener or horticultural businessman operating on Vaksali. Name seems to have been transliterated (in)differently as Šnelli, Snelli or Schnelli. See Sügise and Suve.
Šnelli Staadion (Šnell)
(Johann Schnell, 1821-1890)
Sports stadium with various tracks, pitches and facilities. Balls may be involved. For details, see www.snelli.ee. See main article: Šnelli tiik
