ETÜMOLOOGILISI MÄRKMEID (VI)
Etymological Notes (VI)

Summary/Abstract: Etymologies for the Estonian words kestma ’to last’, loitma ’to flare, to flame, to blaze’, lodjapuu ’guelder rose (Viburnum opulus)’ and nöörima ’to extort money’ are presented. (1) The verb kestma (= Fin. kestää) meaning ’to last, to continue, to go on’ derives from the word *keske (> Est. kesk, Fin. keski), which in the Finnish expression olla kesken means ’to be unfinished’. The derivative is motivated semantically as human logic allows for an unfinished action to be interpreted as an ongoing one. The absence of the base k in the derivative stem can be explained by phonetic reasons: a sequence of three unvoiced consonants is not easy to pronounce [*kesk(e) + tä > *kesk-tä- > kes-tä-, cf. Est. laske-v, but las-ta]. The other meanings of the verb ’to sustain, to bear, to endure’, which are particularly characteristic of Finnish, may be metaphorically motivated, but a separate etymological base cannot altogether be ruled out (< Baltic *kent‡ia-, cf. Lith. kęsti, Latv. ciest ’to bear, to endure’, see Koivulehto 1986). (2) The ancient stem loi- of the verb loitma may be identical either with the stem loi- of the Finnish verb loistaa ’to shine’ (< Germanic *glºoja-, see Koivulehto 1981) or with the Samoyed stem *loj(e)- ’to burn’ (see N.-Sebestyén 1975). Of those two the author prefers the latter, agreeing though that the issue needs additional investigation. (3) The plant name lodjapuu, standing for ’Viburnum opulus’, is a compound word, whose first component lodja- is semantically obscure, while the second component -puu means ’tree’. It is demonstrated that if the dialectal variant loida- is assumed as the base of which the standard form lodja- has been formed as a result of metathesis, it is possible to postulate the stem loi- and the suffix -da. The stem loi- may, in turn, originate in the Germanic stem *blºoja- ’to blossom’, which can be seen in the word loistaa ’to succeed, to grow, to blossom’ used in Eastern Finnish dialects (see Koivulehto 1981). This assumption is supported by the structure of the more widespread Finnic name for the shrub Viburnum opulus (North Est. dial. õispuu, Fin. heisipuu etc.), which can be analysed as ’blossom’ + ’tree’. (4) Nöörima ’to tie (up) with a string’ is a derivative of the word nöör (< Middle Low German snºore) ’string’. Its figurative meaning ’to extort money’ can, however, be traced back to the Low German verb snören (see Schütze 1806) meaning an old trick of craftsmen who would sometimes hold a string across the way to stop people and pester them for drinking money.

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