this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
40 points (100.0% liked)
shitposting
1502 readers
1 users here now
For the dankest of all memes
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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 euphemisSame thing in Slavic languages, but they replaced arkto with ~~"the one who knows where the honey is", medved (med = honey, ved = knowledge)~~ "honey eater", thank you for correcting comrades!
Erm, ackshually Wiktionary says that's a false etymology.
Thank for correcting bigbigchungus! I thought it's honey-knower my whole life
No problem