bear

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[edit] English

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[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

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

This is generally taken to be from Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“shining, brown”) (compare Tocharian A parno, B perne (“radiant, luminous”), Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”)), related to brown and beaver. Ringe (2006) however asserts that "an actual PIE word of [the requisite] shape and meaning is not recoverable" and suggests the etymon Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰweh₁r- (“wild animal”).

Use of an epithet (“brown”) in Proto-Indo-European is presumably taboo avoidance; compare Russian медведь (“bear”), literally “honey-eater”, and French renard (“fox”), from proper name Renard.

[edit] Noun

A bear

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. (informal) An animal that resembles a bear, such as a koala or ant bear.
  3. (finance) An investor who sells commodities, securities, or futures in anticipation of a fall in prices.
    Bears look for over-priced securities to sell short.
  4. (informal) A difficult situation or problem.
  5. (slang) A large hairy man, especially one who is gay.
    There's a new club up the street for bears, so now any time I want a big beefy guy instead of a frail little twink, it'll be a lot easier to get my greedy hands on one.
[edit] Antonyms
  • (investor who anticipates falling prices): bull
[edit] Derived terms
Derived terms
[edit] See also
[edit] Translations
large mammal of family Ursidae
animal resembling a bear
investor who anticipates falling prices
difficult problem
large hairy man

[edit] Adjective

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.

[edit] Adverb

bear (not comparable)

  1. (UK, slang) very
    You rang me last night but it was bear late and I didn't answer.

[edit] Etymology 2

From Middle English beren (“carry, bring forth”), from Old English beran (“to carry, bear, bring”), from Proto-Germanic *beranan, *barōnan (“to bear, carry”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-, *bʰrē- (“to bear”). Akin to Old High German beran (“carry”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌰𐌽 (baíran), Latin ferre, and Ancient Greek φέρειν (pherein), Russian беременная (beremennaya, “pregnant”). These derive from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-.

[edit] Verb

bear (third-person singular simple present bears, present participle bearing, simple past bore, or (archaic) bare, past participle born, borne, or (archaic) 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, with witness) To declare as testimony.
    The jury could see he was bearing false witness.
  4. (transitive) To put up with something.
    please bear with me as I...
  5. (transitive) To give birth to someone or something.
    In Troy she becomes Paris’ wife, bearing him several children, all of whom die in infancy.
  6. (transitive) To produce or yield something, such as fruit or crops.
  7. (intransitive) To be - or head - in a specific direction from the observer’s position.
    The harbour bears North by Northeast.
[edit] Derived terms
Derived terms
[edit] Translations
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

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

[edit] West Frisian

[edit] Noun

bear c. (plural bearen)

  1. bear
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