Bear

Etymology

The English word "bear" comes from Old English bera and belongs to a family of names for the bear in Germanic languages, such as Swedish björn, also used as a first name. This form is conventionally said to be related to a Proto-Indo-European word for "brown", so that "bear" would mean "the brown one". However, Ringe notes that while this etymology is semantically plausible, a word meaning "brown" of this form cannot be found in Proto-Indo-European. He suggests instead that "bear" is from the Proto-Indo-European word *ǵʰwḗr- ~ *ǵʰwér "wild animal".

This terminology for the animal originated as a taboo avoidance term: proto-Germanic tribes replaced their original word for bear—arkto—with this euphemistic expression out of fear that speaking the animal's true name might cause it to appear. According to author Ralph Keyes, this is the oldest known euphemism.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago

In Slavic languages the situation is similar, except bear is named "honey-knowing one".

[–] uglyface@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

Oh man that is what it stands for? I never bothered to check because fuck that.

[–] FumpyAer@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

He's TCG rn