ours

Forms

ours m (invariable, feminine ourse)^[1] Old French urs (in the Chanson de Roland), ors (about 1160), and ours from the end of the 12th century.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had hours, hurs and urse.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French urs, inherited from Latin ursus (“bear”).^[5][3][6] Wiktionary traces the Latin word through Proto-Italic *orsos to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos.^[1] Rey compares Ancient Greek ἄρκτος (árktos) and words in Sanskrit, Avestan, Armenian and Irish, and notes that Baltic, Slavic and Germanic replaced this name with new words, because the name of a feared animal fell under a hunting taboo.^[3] The feminine ourse continues ursa, which in Latin also named the constellations, after Greek usage.^[3][7]

Cognate with Italian orso, Old Occitan ors, Catalan os, Spanish oso, Portuguese urso and Romanian urs.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Urs appears in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), meaning the animal: “Vous lui durrez urs et lions et chiens” (you will give him bears, lions and dogs).^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

Besides the animal, rich in folklore, the word took on several figurative uses from the 17th century.^[3] It described a person who shuns company, first as an adjective (1671, La Fontaine) and then as a noun (1694); ours mal léché, a coarse or unsociable person, goes back to the belief that the mother bear licked her cub into shape.^[3][5][9] The proverb il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours is found as marchander la peau de l'ours in Commynes about 1500 and in La Fontaine in 1668.^[5][3]

Slang uses followed: a pressman in printing (1713), from the heavy swaying of his work, a play that lay unpublished in the drawer (1835), then a manuscript to be revised and, in the mid-20th century, the list of a publication's staff.^[3] Ours marin named the fur seal (1765), and the toy bear is recorded from 1919.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Urs in the Chanson de Roland.^[5]
• c. 1500 – Commynes writes of haggling over the bear's skin before the beast is dead.^[5][9]
• 1668 – La Fontaine's form of the proverb about the bear's skin.^[5]
• 1671 – Used of an unsociable person, as an adjective.^[5][3]
• c. 1680 – Ours blanc, in Richelet.^[5]
• 1713 – Printers' slang for a pressman.^[3]
• 1765 – Ours marin, in Buffon.^[5]
• 1838 – Ours polaire.^[5]
• 1919 – A toy bear, in Claudel.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bear, a large thick-furred carnivore, especially the male: ours brun, ours blanc or ours polaire.^[10][11][5]
2. A teddy bear, a toy bear.^[5][3]
3. (figurative) An unsociable, surly person: un ours mal léché.^[5][3][1]
4. (publishing) The masthead listing the staff of a publication.^[1][3]
5. (slang) Prison, a cell.^[1][3]

Adjective

1. Unsociable and somewhat boorish: il est un peu ours.^[12][5]

Word family

• nounours
• ourson
• oursin

Related words

• ourse
• arctique
• Latin ursus

Usage notes

The pronunciation /uʁ/ without the final /s/, which Littré still preferred, survives in dialects; the /s/ has been restored, perhaps helped by the spelling and by the feminine ourse.^[9][7][1] The bear pit in a zoo is the fosse aux ours, and le pavé de l'ours (1868) is a clumsy favour that does harm.^[5][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 64b
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9089
9. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)