NPPF Bera Range

[Jasper Fidget]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mary Krimmel [mailto:mary at krimmel.net]
> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:40 PM
> To: Jasper Fidget
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: NPPF Bera Range
> 
> You're not the only one left.
> 
> Thank you for all your enlightening information, such as this below about
> the Bera mountains in Wales, and the whole story of Charles II of England.
> You have added much to my enjoyment of PF.
> 
> Let no one be misled by the "(Dutch beer)" in Jasper Fidget's note below.
> My copy of OED punctuates this a bit differently,  "..., MDu. bere, Du.
> beer...", with "bere" and '"beer" both italicized, which shows more or
> less
> clearly that they are the "same word". Both mean "bear", the animal, as do
> the other words in the OED etymology. The American Heritage dictionary
> gives the Indo-European root as "Bher-. Bright, brown."
> 
> Though perhaps beer can be bright or even brown, the word "beer" comes
> from
> an entirely different root.
> 
> I wonder whether the Welsh mountains are bears as in Old English or are
> bright brown. My dictionary gives no Welsh derivatives from "bher".
> 
> Mary Krimmel
> 

Woops, yes I should have marked for italics in the etymology.  A Dutch beer
could have been interesting though (drunken Hamlets?)....  I think the Welsh
mountains are bears, perhaps in accordance with the constellations Big and
Little Bear (aka Dippers).

JF