BTW, “bear” means “the brown one”, which is more or less “the animal that must not be named”. This is true in a bunch of languages (Czech has “the honey eater”).
This is sometimes called the Indo-European Bear Taboo, because it’s observed in many IE languages, mostly northern and central ones.
In some areas without bears it looks like mountain lions get the same treatment. So it may stem from a common IE tradition of euphemizing the largest predator and that tradition changed as IE groups moved into new areas.
But it may just be a human tendency to avoid speaking the name of dangerous or hateful things - many use euphemisms instead of saying trump’s name.
From a similar thread on the other website hypothesizing what the Modern English word would be if it survived:
After the later metathesis to *h₂ŕ̥ḱtos, it could have become Proto-Germanic *urhtaz, which might have taken any number of forms in Old English, *urht, *orht, *roht. Probably at the extreme it could have become English *rought, pronounced like ‘wrought’ or ‘rout’.
BTW, “bear” means “the brown one”, which is more or less “the animal that must not be named”. This is true in a bunch of languages (Czech has “the honey eater”).
It might be the oldest known euphemism.
This is sometimes called the Indo-European Bear Taboo, because it’s observed in many IE languages, mostly northern and central ones.
In some areas without bears it looks like mountain lions get the same treatment. So it may stem from a common IE tradition of euphemizing the largest predator and that tradition changed as IE groups moved into new areas.
But it may just be a human tendency to avoid speaking the name of dangerous or hateful things - many use euphemisms instead of saying trump’s name.
Also happened with “beaver” in at least Germanic, Celtic, and Balto-Slavic, so not just apex predators.
That certainly explains all of the “pet names” I’ve given myself over the years.
Can you supply a link re the mountain lions? Not bc I disagree, just want to read more
I can’t remember where i heard it, i think it was mentioned maybe in a video by stefan milo or crecganford?
All i could find in a few minutes of googling is this paper on polish etymologies of bear, lynx and wolf as possibly taboo zoonyms.
one day I will say the true name of the bear and summon The Brownest One
You’d better eat all your honey beforehand or you’ll lose it.
Mmm. Honey filled snack.
You assume the honey is for me and not an offering
That’s only for the Slavic “bear” euphemism, medved “honey-eater”
Is there a Russian tennis player with this name?
From a similar thread on the other website hypothesizing what the Modern English word would be if it survived:
Good luck with your summoning!
If i remember correctly bear isnt even the actual name but another nickname, the real name is long forgotten and replaced by winnie the pooh