Bear

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /bɛə/

Definitions

1. A large heavy mammal with thick fur and a short tail ; to carry or support a weight or burden ; to produce offspring or fruit ; to endure pain or difficult situations ; to change direction or angle
2. A big wild animal known for strength and fur ; to hold up or sustain something ; to bring forth offspring or yield products ; to withstand or undergo hardship ; to veer or shift course
3. A strong furry mammal commonly found in forests ; to support or hold the weight of an object ; to give birth to young or create ; to bear up under strain or stress ; to make a turn or deviate from a path

Etymology: The animal and the verb are, surprisingly, two different words that happened to end up identical. The noun for the creature came into English from Old English "bera," which goes back to a Proto-Germanic name whose meaning is uncertain. One popular theory links it to a root meaning "shining" or "brown," which would make the bear the "brown one." This may be a taboo substitution: Germanic speakers may have avoided saying the animal's original name, much as Russian "medvédʹ" means "honey-eater." The verb is a separate inheritance. It descends from Old English "beran," meaning "to carry, bear, bring," traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root for carrying, and it is ancestral to many European words for transporting or giving birth. Scholars are not fully agreed on the animal's etymology. Ringe doubts that the "brown" root existed at all and prefers a derivation from a root meaning "wild animal," which would imply that the Germanic words for bear and the Germanic words for "gun" and "warm" share a distant ancestor through an unusual sound merger.

Synonyms: endure, tolerate, withstand, carry, support

Antonyms: reject, refuse, abandon