bear
I can't bear bear meat.
The overall meaning is that the speaker is unable to tolerate consuming meat from a bear.
Meanings (pronounced /bɛər/)
a large heavy mammal of the family Ursidae
- A bear emerged from the woods at dusk.
- Polar bears are the largest land carnivores on Earth.
to carry, support, endure, or give birth to
- The bridge can bear a load of fifty tons.
- She could not bear to watch the ending.
Word origin
Two etymologically distinct words that converged in spelling and pronunciation: the noun (the animal) descends from Old English bera, from Proto-Germanic *berō, while the verb (to carry, endure) descends from Old English beran, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- ('to carry'). The convergence in modern English is coincidental.
Fun fact
The animal name 'bear' is itself a euphemism — Proto-Indo-European speakers had a taboo against saying the bear's true name (which survives in Latin 'ursus' and Greek 'arktos'), so they substituted *berō, meaning roughly 'the brown one'. The original Indo-European word for bear was so feared that it has been completely lost from the Germanic languages.