• sourquincelog [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    My favorite bit of bear lore is the etymology of the word “bear”

    spoiler

    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”.[1][2] 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”.[3] 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.[4][5] According to author Ralph Keyes, this is the oldest known euphemis

    • Kirbywithwhip1987OPM
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      4 months ago

      Can’t believe they forgot literally 2 most famous and obvious ones💀

    • Kirbywithwhip1987OPM
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      4 months ago

      Man as in Man: Arkham Aslume?

      That would be Jonkler, Bone, Two Face and Killer Croc.

    • comrade-bear
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      4 months ago

      And they’ll fear them again in due time, just you wait comrades.

    • Kirbywithwhip1987OPM
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      4 months ago

      Arctotherium delayed migration to North America, as for modern times, it should be obvious lmao.