The True Name of the Bear

I spent way too much time on a response to this post.

Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and a bunch of other Indo-European languages have cognate words for “bear” (arktos, ursus, ṛkṣa and so on). Germanic languages like English lack this word, however, since the proto-Germans had a taboo against naming feared animals. They used the word *beron (“the brown one”), which evolved into English “bear.”

But what if they didn’t?

original proto-Indo-European: *h₂ŕ̥tḱos itself probably a derivative of *h₂rétḱ-os, or “destruction” (which I bet makes it at least a cousin if not the origin of Rakshasa)

late PIE: *h₂ŕ̥ḱþos

proto-Germanic: *urhdaz

Old English: *ord (strong a-stem declension)

Modern English: ord General American /ɜːrd/ Received Pronunciation /ɜːd/

So there you have it. The True Name of the bear, in English at least, is “ord.” Rhymes with “word.”

Use it carefully.