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  • StudSpud The Starchy
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    5 days ago

    Here’s a cool etymology thing - Arctic means “bears”, because you can see the Ursa constellations from the North Pole. And Antarctica (anti-arctic) means “no bears”, you can’t see the Ursa constellations there. It’s coincidence I think, that the Arctic does in fact have Polar Bears, and Antarctica doesnt

    Latin and Greek retained the original Proto-Indo European (PIE) root word for bear, “*rtko”, in their words ursus and arktos, respectively. We use the word “bear” now to describe that species, and “bear” also comes from the PIE word *bher, meaning “bright/brown”. It’s theorised that hunters had a taboo on the “Ursa/arktos” name, and instead used euphemisms and nicknames to describe the animal.

    Just thought that was neat :3

    • Bottom_racer
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      5 days ago

      Ursa constellation

      According to legend, Ursa Major was once the beautiful maiden Callisto, whom the god Zeus had an affair with. In order to protect her and their son, Arcas, from his jealous wife Hera, Zeus turned Callisto and Arcas into bears. He then picked up the bears by their short, stubby tails and threw them into the sky”.

      The ancient greeks had some really good drugs.

    • TheWitchofThornbury
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      5 days ago

      Also King Arthur (of Round Table fame) was probably named that to cash in on the bear’s prestige/status. Consider also ‘berserker’ warriors - the bear-shirt warriors.