Wurdahuzdą: Proto-Germanic dictionary — *berôScott K. ShayWardja Presshttps://protogermanic.org/pgmc_berô
Single-entry extract from the dictionary. Cross-references to other entries point to their identifiers in the full dictionary.
Indo-European bearVáclavBlažekHistorical Linguistics130148–1922017Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11)GuusKroonenBrill2013From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English, 2nd edition)DonRingeOxfordOxford University Press2017*bъrtьhive of wild bees
nounmasculinean-stembearConventionally from Proto-Indo-European *bʰérH-ō ~ *bʰr̥H-n-és, from the root *bʰerH- (‘brown’), as a tabooistic reference to the bear as "the brown one". Ringe 2017 suggests instead *ǵʰwer- (‘wild animal’); however, as Kroonen 2013 notes, this derivation depends on the sound change from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰw- > Proto-Germanic *b-, the validity of which is disputed. Blažek 2017 alternatively suggests a derivation from *bʰerH- (‘to pierce, strike’), from which several IE terms for ‘beehive’ are derived, e.g. Proto-Slavic *bъrtь (‘hive of wild bees’).