Entry · catalog no. 3374

the bear

/ /ðə bɛr/ /thuh-BAIR

phrase · Harlem / nationwide · 1940s

✓ Verified

A confession of poverty — the hard, empty stretch when the money's gone and hardship has hold of you. To have the bear is to be down and out.

“He wouldn't come out all week — the bear had him.”

Origin & Attribution

Harlem slang documented by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang, where "the bear" stands as an open admission of being broke and hard-pressed.

1942

Defined in Zora Neale Hurston's Glossary of Harlem Slang as a confession of poverty

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

Harlem / nationwide · 1940s

Spoken by

1940s Harlem

$THEBEAThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Dormant

84 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

20/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1942

in the culture

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Atlanta, GA

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Memphis, TN

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Citations & Sources

■

Zora Neale Hurston, Glossary of Harlem Slang — reference · 1942

published

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