Polar Words

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

In Latin, the word ursus means bear, and it’s in our word ursine, which means bear-like.

And it’s also the root of the feminine name ursula, which means little bear.

Oh, I didn’t know that.

Yeah.

And it’s in the name of the constellation known as the big bear, which is…

Ursa Major.

Ursa Major, right.

And it’s in a bunch of romance languages.

French is urs.

Okay.

O-U-R-S.

Looks like the English word ours.

Okay.

There you go. Spanish oso for bear.

And it’s a distant relative of the ancient Greek word for bear, which is arctos.

And the Greek word for bear arctos is inside of the Greek word for north, which is arcticos, which literally means of the bear.

And it’s a reference to that same constellation, Ursa Major, which is the most notable constellation in the northern sky.

And so the Greek word for bear, arcticos, gives us the word.

Arctic.

Arctic. Yeah. Isn’t that cool? That’s really cool. There’s another thing about bears, which is that they’re so fearsome that over the centuries, people have superstitiously referred to them,

Not directly, but with what we call taboo variants, because they’re just so scary. And there are lots of different names for bears in lots of different languages. Like in Sweden,

They used to use a term that translated as golden feet or 12 men’s strength.

And the Laplanders used to use a term that translates as the old man in the fur cloak rather than refer to a bear.

And in Ireland, sometimes the Irish would refer to a bear as the good calf.

What does that mean?

It’s a euphemism, you know, rather than talk about this thing with gnashing teeth and big, you know, sharp claws.

Sure, yeah.

They would call it the good calf, or in Welsh it was called the honey pig.

The honey pig.

Yeah.

Interesting.

And in Russian, as a matter of fact, it goes by a name that translates as honey eater.

And that word is medved.

You know, you see that a lot as a name.

Oh, yeah.

We know famous people with that last name, and now it clicks, right?

Right, right.

And the med is related to English mead, which is made with honey.

Blah, blah, blah.

I’ve been exploring this whole tangle of words that are related to bears because of a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago

Amstrup, who is the chief scientist for Polar Bears International, which is a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of polar bears and their habitat.

And we had this whole other conversation about polar bears and the different words for polar bear in different languages.

For example, the scientific name of the polar bear is Ursus maritimus.

So sea bear.

Exactly.

Right.

And in Denmark, it’s Eastbjorn.

Something bear.

-huh.

Yeah, the Bjorn is bear.

Oh, what’s the east part?

The east part is ice.

Ice bear.

Yeah.

So I think it’s interesting that his scientific name is sea bear, but I don’t know.

Will we have the Danish name as just a relic in the future?

I love this discursive stuff.

I really do.

And taboo variant is a great linguistic term that people should know.

A lot of languages, for example, have taboo variants for the devil.

They never name him directly.

They refer to him as something else.

Right.

That’s cool.

I thought you’d like that.

I did like that.

I really enjoyed that.

A little etymological meander.

Which is perfect.

I loved it.

Yeah.

It took us where we needed to go.

Well, we’re going to end with your name.

Grant.

No.

Which possibly relates to French meaning large, which I’m getting there.

Barrett.

Possibly means bear king, but I don’t trust any of the name history books.

Most of them have stolen from each other for so many centuries that what they have to say is unbelievable.

I’m over here nodding my head, but it’s a possibility.

Possibility, yeah.

Same with the name Arthur.

So Great Bear King welcomes you to call the show at 877-929-9673.

Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.

He’s a teddy bear.