Arctic and Antarctic don’t mean anything about actual bears. They are named after the Ursa Major constellation. The absence of bears in Antarctica is a coincidence.
Comment on originality
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
See also: Eurasian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos arctos)
Ursus is Greek for bear and arctos is Latin for…bear.
It’s the bear bear bear!
Bonus fun fact: Arctic means “the place with bears” and Antarctic means “the place without bears”
SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 2 months ago
LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org 2 months ago
But isn’t Ursa Major a bear?
tetris11@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
no, she’s a major general in the forces, you hippie!
Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They are, in fact, the very model of a modern major general!
They have information vegetable, animal and mineral!Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Lunar’s the loony, I’M the hippie!
Would you say that she’s the very model of a modern Major General, or would that be going too far?
Pringles@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Yes, it means “The great bear” or “The big bear”.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Ursa Major means "the great bear“, though. Being named after something that’s named bear counts in my book as well as those of all but the worst pedants.
The absence of bears in Antarctica is a coincidence.
That’s what the secretly hyper-intelligent penguins who scared away the polar bears WANT you to think!
OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 2 months ago
You’re fucking kidding me
I’m renaming the arctic from now on
silverchase@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Bearritory
Pringles@lemm.ee 2 months ago
I think you have it the wrong way around. Ursus is Latin and arctos is Greek.
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Oops! I really should be 💯 on it by now since it’s been one of favorite facts for several years 😄
Anyways, thanks for the correction, I’ll go ahead and edit it 😁