bear

English "bear" comes from Old English "bera", from Proto-Germanic "*berô", traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root generally reconstructed as "*bʰerH-", meaning "shining" or "brown". Some scholars doubt that root and instead propose "*ǵʰwer-", meaning "wild animal", as the true source.

On the leading theory, Germanic speakers replaced the animal's older, ancient name with a descriptive nickname — "the brown one" — likely out of taboo avoidance, the same instinct that gave Russian its word for bear, literally "honey-eater".

The root is said to connect to "brown", "bruin", and "beaver" — the beaver, too, may once have simply meant "the brown one".