Q: "lanechtskipt"

[Paul Johnston]

A panda or something like a spectacled bear from Asia.  I'd say both would be improbable, if possible, in 1735.

Paul Johnston
On Nov 12, 2013, at 1:45 PM, "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Q: "lanechtskipt"
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>
> At 11/12/2013 09:45 AM, W Brewer wrote:
>> JB:  <<"bare" ... If it's singular, I can only imagine that the polar bear
>> of this list was seen as having some brown in its hair.>>
>> WB: Context requires white bear = polar. (Or maybe it's bipolar? No, that's
>> not funny.) How about albino? But evidently there are "brown, cinnamon,
>> blond, blue-gray, or white" black bears. Blond(e)s are in Minnesota,
>> incidentally.
>> http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/basic-bear-facts/16-black-bear-color-phases.html
>
> The phrase is "black and whight bare".
>
> If plural, one bear is the polar bear, well-documented as an
> unwilling visitor to Boston in the 1730s.  Then the black hear is
> presumably the American black bear (Ursus americanus), whose current
> range includes Massachusetts (where they are increasingly appearing)
> and the University of Maine, and which was common in New England in
> the 18th century.  In 1739 a woman in Tolland Conn. sitting under a
> tree during a hunt for honey was shot by a man who mistook her for a
> bear.  That one would be captured alive and exhibited seems very plausible.
>
> Singular seems unlikely.  What would one bear both black white be?
>
> Joel
>
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