There are several hypotheses about the origin of the word. Estonian journalist Voldemar Kures in the 1962
Väliseestlase kalender ("Calendar for Estonians Abroad", "An Expat Estonian's Calendar") suggests, that the word comes from the name of the
Vitebsk Governorate, in reference to Russian construction workers during
World War I, who mostly came to Estonia from
Vitebsk and were considered rather
dumb. They were called
tipski (a corruption of
Vitebski – "one of Vitebsk";
tipskid in plural), which later became
tibla. A similar version is the corruption of
viteblyane/
vitiblyane (витебляне) – "people of Vitebsk" or "people from Vitebsk". The 1937
Eesti Entsüklopeedia (Estonian Encyclopedia) is also believed to have such a reference.
Tibla was already in widespread use during the
Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920), as documented by then-current war correspondence between officers and higher-ups. At the time, the word was used to denote non-local Russians (more specifically males and low-ranking soldiers), independent of their affiliation during the concurrent
Russian Civil War. The 1936–1937 war memories journal
Vabadussõja lood ("Stories of the War of Independence") featured the word more widely both in soldiers' recollections, war songs and anecdotes. Of the soldier's songs, two used the titular word in their lyrics:
Vabariigi pealinnas ("In the Capital City of the Republic", alternately titled "Linda"; the former title was used in print, and the latter appeared in
folklore), which indicated the worry of Estonian soldiers that young women would choose to bide their time with men of other nationalities during the absence of Estonian men themselves; and
Tibla seltsimees ("The Comrade of a Tibla", or "The Tibla Comrade"). Another hypothesis is that the word comes from the
Russian profane addressing
ty, blyad,
ты, блядь ("you bitch", and the like) or, truncated,
ty, blya,
ты, бля. ==Modern definition==