And early Europeans avoided saying the name of the terrifying land mammal out of taboo / fear it would summon it, and instead referred to it as either "the brow

And early Europeans avoided saying the name of the terrifying land mammal out of taboo / fear it would summon it, and instead referred to it as either "the brown one" or "wild animal" (exact etymology is unclear which it was), giving us the word "bear", to the point where the "arktos" based word has been lost. Often times euphemisms stick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear#Etymology