bear

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Contents

English[edit]

A bear
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Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA: /bɛə(ɹ)/, /bɛː(ɹ)/, enPR: bâr, X-SAMPA: /bE@(r\)/, /bEː(r\)/
  • (US) IPA: /bɛɚ/, enPR: bâr, X-SAMPA: /bE@'/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Homophone: bare
  • (Southern US, colloquial) IPA: /bɑːɹ/
  • Homophone: bar (Southern US, colloquial)

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English bere, from Old English bera, from Proto-Germanic *berô (compare West Frisian bear, Dutch beer, German Bär, Danish bjørn).

etymology notes

This is generally taken to be from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“shining, brown”) (compare Tocharian A parno, B perne (“radiant, luminous”), Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”)), related to brown and beaver.

Germanic replaced the older name of the bear, *rtko- with the epithet "brown one", presumably due to taboo avoidance; compare Russian медведь (“bear”), literally “honey-eater”.

However, Ringe (2006:106) doubts the existence of a root *bʰer- meaning "brown" ("an actual PIE word of [the requisite] shape and meaning is not recoverable") and suggesting that a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰwer- (“wild animal”) "should therefore perhaps be preferred", implying a Germanic merger of *ǵʰw and *gʷʰ (*gʷʰ results in Germanic *b regularly, e.g. in *bidjaną)

Noun[edit]

bear (plural bears)

  1. A large omnivorous mammal, related to the dog and raccoon, having shaggy hair, a very small tail, and flat feet; a member of family Ursidae, particularly of subfamily Ursinae.
  2. (figuratively) a rough, unmannerly, uncouth person [1579]
  3. (finance) An investor who sells commodities, securities, or futures in anticipation of a fall in prices. [1744]
  4. (slang, US) a state policeman; short for smokey bear [1970s]
    • 1976 "‘The bear's pulling somebody off there at 74,’ reported someone else." (CB Magazine, Communications Publication Corporation, Oklahoma City, June 40/3)
  5. (slang) a large, hairy man, especially one who is homosexual. [1990]
    • 1990 "Bears, gay men subculture materials" (publication title, Human Sexuality Collection, Collection Level Periodical Record)
    • 2004, Richard Goldstein, Why I'm Not a Bear (in The Advocate, number 913, 27 April 2004, page 72)
      I have everything it takes to be a bear: broad shoulders, full beard, semibald pate, and lots of body hair. But I don't want to be a fetish.
    • 2006, Simon LeVay, Sharon McBride Valente, Human sexuality
      There are numerous social organizations for bears in most parts of the United States. Lesbians don't have such prominent sexual subcultures as gay men, although, as just mentioned, some lesbians are into BDSM practices.
  6. (engineering) A portable punching machine.
  7. (nautical) A block covered with coarse matting, used to scour the deck.
Antonyms[edit]
  • (investor who anticipates falling prices): bull
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms
Translations[edit]
large mammal of family Ursidae
animal resembling a bear
investor who anticipates falling prices
difficult problem
large hairy man

Verb[edit]

bear (third-person singular simple present bears, present participle bearing, simple past and past participle beared)

  1. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to depress the price of, or prices in.
    to bear a railroad stock
    to bear the market

Adjective[edit]

bear (comparative more bear, superlative most bear)

  1. (finance, investments) Characterized by or believing to benefit of declining prices in securities markets.
    The great bear market starting in 1929 scared a whole generation of investors.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  • Ringe, Donald A. (2006). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Linguistic history of English, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-955229-0.

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English beren (“carry, bring forth”), from Old English beran (“to carry, bear, bring”), from Proto-Germanic *beraną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰére-. Akin to Old High German beran (“carry”), Dutch baren, Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (baíran), Latin ferre, and Ancient Greek φέρειν (pherein), Albanian bie, bier (“bring, bear”), Russian беременная (beremennaya, “pregnant”).

Verb[edit]

bear (third-person singular simple present bears, present participle bearing, simple past bore or (archaic) bare, past participle borne, (rare) born, or (archaic, rare) yborn)

  1. (transitive) To carry something.
    • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 234b.
      imitations that bear the same name as the things
    • 1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion[1], page 266:
      In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.
  2. (transitive) To be equipped with (something).
    the right to bear arms
  3. (transitive) To wear or display.
    The shield bore a red cross.
  4. (transitive, with witness) To declare as testimony.
    The jury could see he was bearing false witness.
  5. (transitive) To put up with something.
    I would never move to Texas—I can't bear heat.
    Please bear with me as I ramble on and on about nothing very important, such as that time when I was in Montana and I may have seen a mountain lion, but it was pretty far off and it was raining—the weather, not the lion—and the car broke down...
  6. (transitive) To give birth to someone or something; it may take the father of the direct object as an indirect object.
    In Troy she becomes Paris’ wife, bearing him several children, all of whom die in infancy.
  7. (transitive) To produce or yield something, such as fruit or crops.
  8. (intransitive) To be—or head—in a specific direction or azimuth (from somewhere).
    The harbour bears north by northeast.
    By my readings, we're bearing due south, so we should turn about ten degrees east.
    Great Falls bears north of Bozeman.
Usage notes[edit]
  • The past participle of "bear" is not used very often. The standard past participle is "borne". In reference to childbirth, though, it is "born". The form "yborn" is only ever found as a conscious archaism; it is a Middle English spelling which is only very slightly less uncommon than any given obsolete Middle English spelling.
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms
Translations[edit]
carry
be equipped with
declare
put up with
give birth to
produce
be in a specific direction
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *berô (compare English bear, Dutch beer, German Bär, Danish bjørn).

Noun[edit]

bear c (plural bearen)

  1. bear
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