Familiar brands and possibly a familiar sääsk (mosquito) seen at an Estonian supermarket stand featuring insect repellents (putuka/tõrje/vahendid) with the message Peata pinin! – "Stop the buzz!" The noun pinin and verb pinisema are great onomatopoetic words ("Piiii" seems a slightly higher pitch than "buzzzzz", but is ultimately in the ear of the beholder and not subject to debate.) A pinin noise is usually made by a bug, but a whiny or high-pitched voiced person can also be described as speaking piniseval toonil. A few years ago there was an annual spring concert in rural Estonia called Sääse/pirina Alguse Kontsert (a concert marking the beginning of the mosquito buzz season).
Locally made mosquito repellent (sääse/tõrje) products by Orto. Tõrjuma is to fend off, counter, fight, as in tule/tõrje and tule/tõrjuja (fire fighter). The spray (pihusti or "sprei") on the right is named sääse/hirm (mosquito's fear) and claims to be looduslik (natural). A pihusti (spray) is pihustatud (sprayed) – ejected as little particles, like the expression "pihuks ja põrmuks", to destroy into a thousand little pieces. The jahustav geel (cooling gel) on the left leevendab (eases) the sügelus (itch) of sääse/kupud (aka hammustused) – bites, and thereby bears the great name sääse/kupu/leevendi (mosquito bump (bite) soother). Or you could simply pick a tee/leht (Plantago or plantain) leaf from the roadside, and rub it on the spot which sügeleb (itches). Kids tend to say: “See kratsib”, which in fact is not correct, since it means “it scratches”. An itch (sügelus/sügelemine) begs to be scratched (kratsmine).
Photos and text: Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
