Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 58. The word origin today is
teddy bear. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. The origin of the stuffed toy
called the teddy bear does in fact come from an event by President Theodore
Roosevelt. Okay. Let's continue. In November of 1902, so more than a hundred
years ago, President Roosevelt and some friends went on a hunting trip. And
that's another thing. You know of course this is long before the days of where
you might had PETA , you know , complaining about you know animal rights and things.
I don't think the president nowadays in a modern time could go on a hunting trip
anymore. But back then it was perfectly acceptable. It was like a real sport that
he was doing. After hours of searching, President Theodore or we might say Teddy
Roosevelt. Remember Ted or Teddy is a short form of Theodore. So that's where
the Teddy in teddy bear actually comes from. Because he was actually referred to
as Teddy Roosevelt ... had not got any animals. Some attendants tracked down and
tied a black bear to a tree. Yes. To a tree the president was invited to shoot
it. All right. So a couple of things here. First I think almost everybody else on
the trip actually got an animal and he didn't get an animal, He's the president. I
don't know it kind of makes him look lose a little face that he's the only
one that didn't get any animals on this hunting trip.
So some attendants, I guess they wanted to make sure he got something. So it
looked good and but they they didn't do it the right way. They tracked it down.
They caught it for him and then they tied it to a tree and of course you
know, I guess Teddy Roosevelt realizing you know, this is not very sportsmanlike.
It's not nice to just kill, I think it was like a small bear too. So it's like
more like a baby bear or you know a younger bear rather than you know the
big ferocious bear. You know like you know you're a real
hunter and you know, you got this wild animal. Here they got like you know, a
young bear. They tracked it down. They kind of beat it up a bit and they tied
it to a tree. They said here just go shoot it. So he decided not to do that. He didn't
think that was the right thing to do. So instead he took pity on it and
refused to shoot it. A political cartoonist named Clifford, Clifford
Berryman of the Washington Post made a drawing showing the president having
sympathy for the bear and deciding not to do it. You know not to kill this bear.
So of course it turned around. It turned the whole story right into a very good
image. Now you know, now he's a president that has mercy on this wild animal
instead of a president that just didn't catch any animals. Let's continue. The
cartoon got the attention of Morris Michtorn. Okay, who decided to create
the teddy bear. So he was a businessman I guess he, he got a good idea
together. All right. The president was popular at the time and he
created a little stuffed toy. He made it look cute and you know, from, from
Teddy Roosevelt he used the word teddy so he called it teddy bear and of course
this took off right away and became very popular right away. He sent one to
Roosevelt and got permission to use his name. So the president didn't mind. Yeah. I
guess it mostly helps your image anyway the teddy bear is kind of cute. Thus the
teddy bear was born. So that's really where the teddy bear came from. So we've
had the teddy bear for you know well over a hundred years now due to the
president and due to the cartoonist and due to this businessman. All three
together helped in creating what today we call the teddy bear. Anyway I hope you
got it. I hope you found it informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.