Kutselised arstijad eesti keeles
Professional healers in Estonian

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses names for professional healers (arst, paader, palper, tohter, velsker) registered as borrowed words in 16th-19th century written Estonian. The origin and meaning (shifts) of these words is examined, along with their occurrence in older written Estonian and their usage in dialects and runic songs, as well as in neighboring and related languages.First aid and wound treatment was until the 19th century the responsibility of sauna keepers, barbers and barber-surgeons, the last of whom performed surgical procedures in addition to regular barber’s work. Based on the lexicons of older written Estonian, it is possible to follow how the names for these professions developed by the 18th century. Of these loan words, arst ‘doctor’, tohter ‘doctor’ and velsker ‘medical assistant’ are still used in modern Estonian, while paader ‘sauna keeper’ and palper ‘barber-surgeon’ have long since disappeared. Interestingly, in runic songs, meanings of these words have been preserved that do not occur in written language or in dialects. For instance, palper is used in these songs as a synonym for arst and tohter ‘doctor’ (rather than its original meaning of barber), while velsker is used to denote a barber (and certainly not a field surgeon).

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