I Ain’t Just a Bear Trackin’

The other day when I was hanging out with my friend Kiki before work, we discussed the possibility that there is a word in the English language that means “to do with, or having to do with bears.” Both of us insisted that the word has to exist, and later agreed the word probably contains the root “ursus”. Timothy Treadwell, who spent thirteen seasons living amongst the bears of Alaska, probably knew the word, and I would email him my question had he and his girlfriend not been killed and partially eaten by bears.

The documentary filmmaker Errol Morris comes into the East Coast regularly. Before I realized that he was the man behind the cameras I thought he was just a gentle white haired regular with a funky eyeball. His wife is nice. Now I know that the man has his offices on Cambridge St., never stops filming, and got his start by being pushed by Werner Herzog. Herzog is the one behind the documentary about Timothy Treadwell, Grizzly Man.

Specifically, Herzog’s the creepy narrator who listens to the human meal tape and intones, “You must never listen to this. You should not keep it. You should destroy it because it will be like the white elephant in your room all your life.” White elephant, black bear, same difference? If you don’t know which lines I’m talking about, think of the above quotation spoke aloud in a warbling, creaking German accent.

I consulted several books on language in my struggle to find the word for to do with or having to do with bears, a search which bore the following etymology: Modern English “bear” derives from Old English “bera”, which itself derives from Proto-Germanic “*beron” meaning “the brown one”. (Compare Old Norse “björn”, Dutch “beer” and German “Bär” all meaning “bear”).

Both Greek (“arktos”) and Latin (“ursus”) have retained the Proto-Indo-European root word for “bear” (“*rtko”) but it was ritually replaced in the northern branches of the Indo-European languages (The Germanic, Baltic, Celtic and Slavic branches) because of the hunters’ taboo on the names of wild animals. For example the Irish word for “bear” translated means “the good calf”, in Welsh it translates as “honey-pig”, in Lithuanian it means “the licker” and Russian “медведь” literally means “one who leads to honey”.

Still, that didn’t lead to the discovery of what the word is that means, “to do with or having to do with bears.” Please leave me a comment if you know what this word is. My legwork did recover a new way to use bear in slang…

“In the old west and to this day in the former Dakota Territory, the expression, “You ain’t just a bear trackin’.”, is used to mean “You ain’t lying.” or “That’s for sure.” or “You’re not just blowing smoke.” This expression evolved as an outgrowth of the experience pioneer hunters and mountain men had when tracking bear. Bear often lay down false tracks and are notorious for doubling back on anything tracking them. If you are not following bear tracks, you are not following false trails or leads in your thoughts, words or deeds.”