Home
Pusta A. (August Pusta, 1904-1971)
Colonel (polkovnik, from polk [Ru. полк], regiment [but also ‘crowd of girls’…], ultimately from Old German *fulkaz, also giving rise to Anglo-Saxon folc [troop, detachment], Eng. folk, and cognate with Latin pleb; nothing to do with dancing where ‘polka’ is thought to come from Czech půlka (half, or half-step, see chap. L’indéchiffrable de la langue française in Français hors de France ! by the present author) of the Soviet Army’s 8th Estonian Rifle Corps. Soviet occupation renaming (1979-1994/5) of Kahu and Lummu. See title to present tome: ‘… rambling…”, I did warn you.
Püssirohu (Püssirohi)
Gunpowder, cordite. Lit. rifle weed / grass / medicine, ironically, since it was used as a medicine... After local powder store called Püssirohu ait (see Aida), demolished in 1917 and now paved over by the NE arc of the running-tracks in the Kalevi Stadium. This was not the only store, there seem to have been at least 2 more at suitable distances away from each other stretching for almost a kilometer due SW. Local lore has it that there also used to be stables for konka horses (see Hobujaama) at the Võistluse end of the street too, possible given the then green spaces nearby and the Tartu mnt section of the line ending some 50 m away near Gildi.
