How do you say 'Get me off this crazy thing!' in Estonian?

November 12, 2008 9:55 AM

Kiiking means 'swing' in Estonian. Estonian swing culture explained.
posted by grounded (20 comments total)

First I thought this was a racist post, then I got excited to learn about swapping partners in Estonia. Oh well.
posted by gman at 9:57 AM on November 12, 2008

Oohhhhhh, that kind of "swinging culture."
posted by paisley henosis at 10:01 AM on November 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

Neat! And kinda scary to my slightly older, swinging-days-behind-me self.

Also. Estonian sounds weird. It's like Finnish but as if though the person speaking was doing a funny accent while making fun of you. I wonder if Finnish sounds like that to Estonian ears.

It's also awesome that this post was posted by someone called 'grounded'.
posted by slimepuppy at 10:10 AM on November 12, 2008

Children and young people prevail among swingers

Do those Estonians have no SHAME?!
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 AM on November 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

I thought that doing that would make you turn inside-out.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:37 AM on November 12, 2008

How do you say 'Get me off this crazy thing!' in Estonian?

This should suffice:

Päästa mind sellest hullust asjast!
[Pae-stuh minned sehl-ehst hoolloost us-yust!]

This phrase might save your life the next time you visit Estonia.
posted by martinrebas at 10:45 AM on November 12, 2008

In Finnish (very closely related, as slimepuppy points out) it's kiikku.
posted by languagehat at 11:48 AM on November 12, 2008

In Finnish (very closely related, as slimepuppy points out) it's kiikku.

The Estonian word for the noun "swing" is actually "kiik", and the verb is "kiikuda". I guess some people wanted a more international-sounding, extreme sport style name, so they tacked on an English suffix.
posted by martinrebas at 12:07 PM on November 12, 2008

That made my nuts retract.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:14 PM on November 12, 2008

The Estonian word for the noun "swing" is actually "kiik"

You'll find it at the beginning of the second verse in this very traditional Estonian song which all children learn in school.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:22 PM on November 12, 2008

Bonobo: I don't have nuts, but it made every one of my pores crawl inside my body, where it's warm and safe.
posted by jrochest at 12:49 PM on November 12, 2008

I wonder if Finnish sounds like that to Estonian ears.

To this Finn, Estonian is like listening to the first half of every Finnish word, as though they were speaking through a broken microphone. Then again, my heritage is from Karelia where we have our own ruddy dialect.

Maybe like "to ths Fn, Eston 's like list t th'firs ha f'ev Finn wr..."
posted by myopicman at 1:24 PM on November 12, 2008

BEST OF WEB!!!

I laughed roaringly with that first post. Thanks, grounded.

Also,...

...eponysterical!
posted by humannaire at 3:53 PM on November 12, 2008

Estonia when you're trying to be so good
Estonia just like they said they would
Estonia when you're trying to go home
Estonia when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get Estoned.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:00 PM on November 12, 2008

Of course, as we all know, it don't mean an Estonian thing if it ain't got that Estonian swing.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:20 PM on November 12, 2008

That Estonian swing.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:33 PM on November 12, 2008

Yeah yeah, we all know it's just their version of foreplay.

That's probably about right.

Swings like this exist in Latvian culture as well (unsurprisingly - being right next door, and all). As far as I know, they're only really used during the good old pagan midsummer let's-all-get-incredibly-drunk-and-shag-in-the-forest festival. You'd normally have a guy & a girl on the swing, throwing their bodies back & forth in sync to make the thing go higher & higher & higher.

This 360-degree turn seems like a new thing, though. You might nickname it "the big O" to keep in line with the general symbolism.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2008

So I was right about what kind of "swinging" it was after all!
posted by paisley henosis at 4:56 PM on November 12, 2008

As far as I know, yes. It's hard to get straight answers sometimes, but a lot of the folklore points towards Midsummer Night being a sexual free-for-all, where all normal rules are lifted. Something like Saturnalia, I suppose.

Mum: "Now remember, 'whichever flower you pluck on Midsummer Night, it's a good flower'"

Me: "Um, does that rhyme mean what I think it means?"

Mum: "Probably"

And another rhyme, which goes (in part) "On Midsummer Night, you don't know who is whose wife, who is whose daughter"

And there's a whole thing about "Hey, why don't you and I go off into the forest to find some fern flowers?"

(ferns, of course, don't have flowers, they reproduce through spores)

You return from the forest, and the old people ask, "soooo...did you two find any fern flowers?" *wink wink nudge nudge*
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:35 PM on November 12, 2008

I lived in Estonia for a while and used to speak it some. Compared to Estonian, the Finns to me always sounded like they were spitting out a huge great mouthful of 't's and 'k's, with the odd 'r' thrown in here and there.

Takka rakkak raka takka taka rakkat takka raakkka takka taka takka.

Alas, I never kiiked or kelked while there.
posted by penguin pie at 4:17 PM on November 15, 2008