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[spookysaint121]

Hi!

Question for the German speakers:

I want to give my dog a German name. I was looking for the word for bear but I've found 3 different versions. The woe of internet translators of course.

Thanks!

Comments

[donnaimmaculata]

Bär. Pronounced more or less like the English "bear".

There's also "Meister Petz", which is what a bear might be called in fables.

Just curious: what were the other versions you've found?

[spookysaint121]

Tragen and Bissier.

[schnuffichen]

Ah, interesting. "Tragen" is the verb as in "to bear arms". No idea where Bissier comes from.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Google Translate says it's "Baissier" (from French) - apparently a stock trader "who anticipates falling prices", which is "bear" in English as well. FWIW, that's not a word I think your average German even knows; I at least didn't.

OP, if you're looking for exact word-to-word translation, an online translator generally isn't of any use because it cannot tell the context, and because as in this case, a word with the same spelling might mean totally different things and have several applicable words in the other language. Dictionaries, while they can't answer all questions either, can give you added information that at least tells you which meaning you're after.

[spookysaint121]

Tragen and Bissier.

[muckefuck]

Me, I'd be inclined to use a diminutive form such as Bärchen. (Bärle, actually, since I learned to speak with a southwestern accent.)

[muckefuck]

[BTW, did you mean to make this a private post? You'd probably get more responses if you unlocked it.]

[spookysaint121]

Nope.

[piperki]

If you're looking for something that doesn't sound just like the English "bear," maybe pick a different language?

[comeonyouspurs]

This.

I like the Serbo-Croat "medved [медвед]"/"medvjed" (literally "honey-eater", although it is similar in Proto-Slavic & other Slavic languages, predictably, e.g. "медведь" in Russian).

med/мед - honey, jesti/јести - to eat (I eat - jedem/једем, you eat - jedeš/једеш, he/she/it eats - jede/једе, &c).

[verrucaria]

I always assumed that the latter part of Slavic bear referred to knowing (where to find honey?), so "bear" would be literally honey-knower. I speak only Polish, though.

[comeonyouspurs]

What is the Polish word for "bear"? I know that it's "medvěd" in Czech.

I don't know a lot of Polish, but isn't "I eat" quite similar - "jem" (in Russian, "ем") as opposed to "jedem"? I think it's the same in Czech too, "jím" or "jedl"-something.

I wish that I knew more about the evolution, linguistic history & etymology of the Slavic languages - that will be the subject of my next entry in linguaphiles!