bear tamer

English

Alternative forms

• bear-tamer, beartamer

Noun

bear tamer (plural bear tamers)

1. Synonym of bearleader (“one who handles and keeps bears”).
   • 1945, Hermann Kesten, translated by A.B. Ashton and Norbert Guterman, Copernicus and his World, London; New York: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd.; Roy Publishers, page 129:

     A ninth table was pro joculatoribus, proprie vor dy herolt, vor dy kokeler, in medio coenaculi—so that the court jesters, gypsies, beartamers, tight-rope walkers and jugglers could entertain the whole room with their arts and pranks.

   • 1984, Frederic Will, Shamans in Turtlenecks, published 1 November 2021, →ISBN, page 185:

     The quiet academician was translating, but not transmuting, the gypsy beartamers who crossed the National Gardens; for the beartamers entered his poetry directly.

   • 1993, Bernard Arps, Performance in Java and Bali, published 27 June 2005, →ISBN, page 16:

     During the Sung dynasty the big cities had extensive entertainment quarters where the puppet theatre, marionettes, and shadow-plays could be found alongside acrobats and beartamers (Idema and Haft, 1985:199).

Coordinate terms

• lion tamer

Translations

a person who tames bears — see bearleader