What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Word "bear" is not the original word for the bear, and the original word may have been lost because our ancient ancestors were so worried saying the name of the animal would cause it to come after them. Instead, they used the term bruin, meaning the brown one, which then segued into bear.

On a related note, ‘Arctic’ comes from a Greek word which means ‘near the bears’, while ‘Antarctic’ means - obviously - just the opposite (‘away from the bears’).

This doesn’t refer to polar bears, but to the constellations Ursa Major and Minor, both prominent in the northern part of the celestial sphere. The fact that there are no bears in Antarctica is a happy accident.

Boru