Ursine usages with edifying footnote on Burma

[sagehen]

>Isn't the most prevalent current sense of the adjective "grizzly" (other
>than the ursine epithet) something like "ghastly, grim, horrible"--for
>instance, "I saw a really grizzly wreck on the interstate this morning"?
>That sense has no entry in the OED, though it may be implied in an 1864
>quotation (illustrating "grizzly" a.1): ". . . the next town,.. grim and
>grizzly,..looked drearier."
>
>Could that sense have evolved, by a sort of folk etymology, from the
>legendary ferocity and destructiveness of the grizzly bear?  Or, was the
>sense already established--connotatively, at least--perhaps influencing
>the designation of the fierce animals when English speakers discovered
>them in the early 19th century (they could, instead, have been called
>"silvery bears" or something)?
>
>--Charlie
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Am I missing something here?  It looks like a simple misspelling for "grisly."

The ursine grizzly is called that just because of  its color, not its
nature.  (My family once had a cat named "Grizzle" for the same reason.)
AM

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