Re: Germanic 'bear'

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> And indeed descriptive epithets completely replaced the inherited

'bear'

> word in the languages of IE groups whose familiarity with the animal

was

> surely as intimate as that of the Germani. It became 'the shaggy one'

to

> the Balts and 'the honey-eater' to the Slavs. Whether actual taboo or
> hunters' slang (which may be the same thing), such replacements are
> commonplace.
>

I disagree in the case of Germanic and Baltic.