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Vihu (Vihk)
1) Sheaf (usually harvested cereals, but also leaves, etc.), probably related to viht:viha, the sauna birch-twig whisk (which shares the same Proto-Germanic origin (*wisk-), and vihisema (to whistle, sough, swish), possibly reflecting the sound made by the scythe as it mows the grass or cereal. For those less intimate with harvesting, the sequence goes like this: the corn, or other crop is scythed, the resulting swathe of cereal is gathered and tied into sheaves; the sheaves are then bundled and stacked into stooks (caution, stack and stook are partial synonyms); the stooks then stooked into stacks, cocks or ricks. (In Eng., there is considerable overlap in hay-stacking terms: cock, rick, shock and stook, with or without a preceding ‘hay’, and the situation is similar in Est. see Auna, Haki, Kahlu, Kuhja, Nabra), all of which end their miserable lives in hamburger buns for which – and I shit you not – there is a futures’ market for unsold waste. I shall avoid all reference to farmers of yesteryear ‘just doing it’ and ‘swoosh’. 2). Book part, installment or fascicle. Part of a harvest street-name group. See Hargi.
Nabra (Naber)
Word of conflicting meaning: either a shock/stook, or a stack; the difference here seeming to depend on size, where the shock/stook synonyms are primary bundles of sheaves, and the stack is a larger heap or bundle of some 20 or more (see Vihu). Usually specified according to crop, e.g. rukkinaber or odranaber (stook of rye or barley), both of which are preferable on your land to idanabrid (see Teisepere). Or, again, it could be a pile or mound of the grain itself. Given its probable original loan from a Rus. dialectal набóр (nabór, ±‘set’), the former seems more likely. Part of a fodder and staples street-name group. See Orase.
Raudalu (Raudalu)
No street, Sub-district only. In the early 19th C, there was a street called, indiscriminately, Raudalsche Straße, Raudarrosche Straße and Rappelsche Straße. While you can discern the original destination in the last German name, in Estonian it stands out loud and clear: Rapla. The contemporary Estonian counterparts Raudalu and Raudaru were after a local inn called Raudaru Kõrts (from raud: iron + aru: meadow, see Raua and Aru, but why?), aka Uerist (1798, but why’er? It sorta sounds like a mispronunication... although it could also come from ‑vere, see Aedvere), or Raud Arro (1725) in German and Raudorakrog, etc. (1697) in Swedish. Confusion was a no-brainer. Name changed in 1949 to Viljandi to which it also leads, if you have the time. Last word?... Arro is and was a common-enough surname and the original name may well have been based on ‘Arro’s smithy’.
