TIL that Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) is the bearest of all bears – "ursus" means bear, and "arctos" also means bear, so the scientific name translates to "Bear bear bear"

individual@toast.ooo · 2 months ago

TIL that Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) is the bearest of all bears – "ursus" means bear, and "arctos" also means bear, so the scientific name translates to "Bear bear bear"

Hegar@fedia.io · 2 months ago

It’s extra funny that “bear bear bear” would be considered the beariest bear, because “bear” doesn’t even mean bear.

Many languages had a taboo against saying the word bear - “bear” comes from the word for “brown”, because people used to say “the brown one” instead. Some languages seem to have used “sweetpaw” or something similar.

This is akin to the modern toilet-taboo, where except for terms like “shitter/pisser” all the words are euphemisms. Even “toilet” comes from towel.

Bourff@lemmy.world · 2 months ago

I’ve heard that factoid numerous times over the years, but I never saw a single source for it. I’d love to read more about this.

Dadifer@lemmy.world · 2 months ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear.

Etymology section

TIL that Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) is the bearest of all bears – "ursus" means bear, and "arctos" also means bear, so the scientific name translates to "Bear bear bear"

TIL that Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos arctos) is the bearest of all bears – "ursus" means bear, and "arctos" also means bear, so the scientific name translates to "Bear bear bear"

Eurasian brown bear - Wikipedia

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