By Karolina Dejnicka
Several years ago, a map that went viral online caught my interest. It was a map of Europe, showing what the word for “bear” is in each country. It was interesting to see how many languages used what were essentially epithets in different language families, like “honey eater” in Slavic languages, and “the brown one” in Germanic languages (including English). The discussion around this map was the first time I encountered the concept of taboo avoidance.
Of course, it’s impossible to definitively prove why certain words are or aren’t used when reaching back to the distant past, but the gist of the bear taboo avoidance theory is that in order to avoid saying the name of the bear, many cultures in the northern hemisphere moved away from using the “original” word for bear to a more euphemistic, roundabout descriptor. I say “original” because who knows, maybe that older Proto-Indo-European word for bear was itself a euphemism, too!
But if this is true, why bother? Why create a newer, vaguer, more imprecise word when you already have one?
Even those who still depend on the land to make a living today, like modern farmers, are far removed from their ancestors’ ways of life. These ancestors depended on their natural surroundings in ways that we cannot fathom. The woods were a dark and dangerous place, full of life-giving resources, but also full of predators. To societies at the mercy of good harvests, successful hunts, rainy seasons, and all the whims of nature, plants and animals can take on mystical qualities – and even play a central role in their religious rituals and origin myths.
In such an environment, the fearsome bear and wolf are not just fellow forest-dwellers, but dangerous and mysterious predators who must be revered. Using an alternative name for them may have been a way to show the animal respect, or a way to avoid saying its “true” name and thereby summoning it or incurring its wrath.
“Bear cults” have been attested in various northern societies, and the wolf seems to have received similar treatment, albeit to a lesser extent. It’s impossible to say just how widespread such practices were when we don’t have definitive records to show it, but the fact that far-flung cultures and languages have adopted such euphemistic terms for the same creatures may be a sign that different peoples deliberately avoided the same words for the same reasons, even if they didn’t necessarily take part in rituals to honour these animals.
In Turkish, the word for both “wolf” and “worm” is the same – kurt – which is strange, given that the two animals would have been known to ancient Turkic peoples and would have formed an important part of their lives. So why use the same word? Taboo avoidance may explain this quirk in the language. The meaning of worm predates the meaning of wolf, so calling the wolf by the same name as the worm may have helped make the wolf less frightening.
Again, it’s impossible to definitely say that the word for wolf came from the word for worm with any certainty, but it’s an interesting theory to consider. Societies around the world may have abandoned ancient customs based around animals, but the terminology they came up with to suit their particular needs continues to influence language today, long after that need is gone.
Another fun example: the avoidance of the name “Lord Voldemort” in the popular Harry Potter book series. Characters prefer to refer to him as “He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named” instead – certainly a wordier euphemism than “honey eater”!
Avoiding negative terms is not unheard of in Turkish. You may be surprised to learn that the word for “no” (hayır) actually has positive connotations. Hayır also means charity, prosperity, and benevolence. So even when you’re saying no, you’re still willing positivity. Many other languages that value politeness employ more indirect ways of saying “no” to soften negative language, too.
There are also instances where one deliberately uses negative words in Turkish for positive things to avert the attention of the nazar, the “evil eye” – but that’s an interesting topic worthy of a blog post in itself.
Ultimately, this matter of taboo avoidance across languages is just a theory proposed by some scholars, and is not universally supported. An interesting theory nonetheless!
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