Listening to @worldbuildcast, talking about Profanity, puts me in mind of various names for Bears - "Bruin," etc. - which just mean "Brown [one]."

Because speaking the NAME of the bear would summon it.

And bears are fucking terrifying.

AND NOW.

WE JUST USE THAT AS THE NAME.

Russian calls them медве́дь (medvédʹ) which literally means "Honey-Eater."

And it's not like we had no word for bear - there was a perfectly good one in proto-indo-european that still gets used in Greek. άρκτος (árktos). Bear.

But if you SAY arktos, then ARKTOS WILL APPEAR.

Ursa (ursine, etc) are just the Proto-itallic to Latin version of Arktos, becaus language.

You may notice that the taxonomic name for the Grizzly Bear,

is Ursus arctos horribilis.

Literally,

"Horrible Bear Bear."

"Arktos. Hmm. That sounds familiar."

It should. "Arctic." As in "North."

The Greeks named North for "Where the bears are." Particularly the constellations.

SO WE'VE DIVIDED THE WORLD,

INTO THE BEAR CIRCLE

AND THE AWAY FROM BEAR CIRCLE.