The History Behind The Russian Word Bear

Hello my friends, my name is Kerrin. I just found out recently that bears are symbols of Russia. The bears symbolized Russia’s power, resilience and strength. In political cartoons, sports and international events, bears are also used for personifying Russia.

Besides that, the bears are also portrayed as kind and good-natured animals in the Russian stories. That image of bears as kind and good-natured animals has been used since the 17th century in cartoons, fairytales and dramatic drama. One of the examples of the images of bears as kind and good-natured animals is the cartoon “Masha and the Bear”, where the bear - Misha - is portrayed as a kind-hearted and friendly creature.

But, apart from that, the Russian word of bear or медведь consists of an interesting historical etymology. Actually, медведь or medved’ is not the true name of the word “bear” in Russian. It was an euphemism of the true name of the bear. Let’s delve into the history behind the word “medved’” or bear.

As we all know, the Russian language is a branch of Slavic group, which is part of the Proto-Indo-European ethnolinguistic group. The original word for bear in the Proto-Indo-European is h₂ŕ̥tḱos, as being reconstructed by linguists. That original word appears to mean “destroyer”. This word is believed to be the root of Italic Ursus, Hellenic Άρκτος (árktos), Sanskrit r̥kṣa, Armenian արջ (arǰ), Celtic artos, Albanian ari, and many more. But, in some language branch, they didn’t use the derivations of h₂ŕ̥tḱos. For instance, in Proto-Germanic language, bear is called berô (that’s why there is English “bear”), and in the Proto-Baltic language, bear is tlakis.

It shows a curious pattern in the Proto-Indo-European language groups. While some branches of language retain the cognates of the original Proto-Indo-European word about the bear, the others didn’t. According to some linguists, there is a theory about that.

The Theory of Bear Taboos

It’s quite interesting that some languages didn’t use the direct, derived versions of h₂ŕ̥tḱos. And linguists attempted to answer this riddle. One of the explanations, according to bear taboo theory, is that there was a strong fear against the bear. The bear was considered a powerful and fearsome animal, since in the Northern part of Europe, where the Germanic, Slavic and Baltic people lived, there were a lot of bears. And there was a belief in “the power of words”, where names were thought to have the power to summon or invoke something, so that, in order to not “accidentally” summon the bear, it’s better to not use the true name of the bear. And thus, euphemisms happened in the Germanic, Baltic and Slavic groups. Let’s see the euphemisms for the word “bear” in the following three groups below…

In Proto-Germanic language, the word for bear is berô, which is thought to come from the Proto-Indo-European word bʰerH, which comes from the Proto-Indo-European root word bʰerH-, with the meaning “brown”, as if it’s suggested the bear as “the brown one”. But some other linguists suggest that this word derived from the Proto-Indo-European root word *ǵʰwer- “the wild one”. From the Proto-Germanic, comes the descendant words *bera in Old-Norse, The English bear, the Dutch beer, and many others. Meanwhile in Proto-Baltic language, the word tlakis means “hairy” or “shaggy”. From the Proto-Baltic, came the Lithuanian word lokys, the Old-Prussian word clokis and the Latvian word lācis for “bear”.

How about the Slavic ones?

Meanwhile, the Russian word for bear “медведь“ (medved’) comes from *medvědь in the Proto-Slavic. It is thought to be a combination of Мед (med - honey) and ведь (ved’), which means “knower of honey” (ведь is an archaic word of ведать or vedat’). But this word is also thought to be a combination of the Proto-Slavic word *medъ (means ‘honey’) and *ed (‘eat’), which means “honey eater”. The word “Медведь” (Medved’) has cognate words with the Sanskrit मध्वद् (madhv-ád-, “eating sweetness”).

Apart from the Russian Медведь (medved’), in other Slavic languages, the word “bear” appears as follows:

  • Ukrainian: ведмідь (vedmid’)
  • Belarusian: мядзведзь (myadzvedz’)
  • Polish: niedźwiedź
  • Czech: medvěd
  • Serbian-Croatian: медвед/medvjed
  • Slovakian: medved’
  • Slovenian: medved
  • Montenegrin: medvjed
  • North Macedonian: мечка (mechka)
  • Bulgarian: мечка (mechka)

It shows that the euphemisms employed in the three language groups use descriptive words for the bears. In the Germanic ones, the bears were described for their fur color and their “wild nature”. The Baltic ones describe the bears for their hairy, shaggy fur. While the Slavic ones described the bear for their ability to find honey, which is a Bear’s food. This “bear taboo theory” also shows the Northern/southern divide, where in the southern part of Europe, the Western and Southern part of Asia, the presence of bears wasn’t rampant, so bears aren’t considered as very scary animals. The groups which moved to areas with a lot of bear presences developed that taboo, while the others didn’t.

After the euphemisms of the bears were being employed, the true name of the bear finally got forgotten. Then, since there was belief in “the power of words”, the euphemism usage neutralized the perceived fear of the bear, where it was believed that the bear could listen and perceive its name when being called with its real name. This process was called “linguistic control”. By describing the bear with euphemisms such as “the honey-eater”, “the brown ones” or “the hairy ones”, these speakers neutralized their fear of bears.

And as the name changed, the symbolism of the bear in folklore and mythologies changed, from a very fearsome to a more complex benevolent creature. For example, in the Germanic mythologies, bears were considered as courageous and strong animals, like a warrior. It reinforces the bear as an animal with martial prowess. Also, in the Slavic folklore, the bear was perceived not only as a powerful and strong figure, but also as a kind figure, a good-natured animal and even a protector. Finally this linguistic shift made this animal possible to be a prominent character in children stories.

In conclusion, the word bear or “медведь” - literally honey eater - in Russian, consists of a long history in the Proto-Indo-European language family. The linguistic taboo, the euphemisms, directly influenced the symbolisms of bears in cultures and folklores of Russia.

Thank you for reading ;)