Estonian ghosts haunt idioms, curses and compounds

Estonian has a rich vocabulary of ghosts, from dialect names and curses to compounds such as “debt ghost,” Elisabeth Kaukonen writes in a Vikerraadio language segment published by ERR.

With the darker season approaching, when Halloween and St Martin’s Day and St Catherine’s Day are celebrated, Kaukonen looks at the words ghosts use to give concerts, or “ghost concerts” in a play on the Estonian word for concert.

According to an etymological dictionary, the Estonian word for ghost was borrowed from related languages. In Livonian, it meant an evil spirit; in Votic, a devil or evil spirit; and in Ingrian, an evil spirit. Words with similar meanings and spelling also appear in Estonian Swedish dialect and Swedish.

Estonian dialect dictionaries list several other names for ghosts, including kaabakas, kaapjalg, kummipealne, paharet and pekats. They also include madis, found in the curse “Madis take you!”

Ghosts also feature in expressions such as “the ghost knows,” used to express uncertainty, and “a ghost with him,” which conveys resignation. Other idioms include “fear neither wolf nor ghost,” meaning to fear nothing, and “got full of ghost,” meaning to become angry. To “paint a ghost on the wall” means to exaggerate, be overly fearful or blow something out of proportion.

Common compounds include tondiloss (ghost castle), tondipüüdja (ghost hunter) and tondijutt (ghost story). More playful forms include “ghost disco,” “ghost uncle” and tonditemp, a trick associated with or reminiscent of a ghost. The verb tonditama means to haunt or frighten. A less common form, tondistunud, appears in examples to describe a tired, ghostlike state. Words ending in “ghost” can also refer figuratively to feared things, such as an illness, layoffs or debt.

“So ghosts haunt Estonian in a thoroughly ghostly way,” Kaukonen concludes.