# A baloo is a bear **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 5, 2000, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810 "2000-10-05T17:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/21 "2012-02-03T18:17:38Z")
I have taught for 20+ years and never heard of these. Are they like Achievement Tests here in the Midwest, normally taken around here in the spring? ---
**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/22 "2012-02-03T18:34:45Z")
I also remember that a lepton is a Greek coin. I played the word “alate” in a Words with Friends game the other day and it made me _so happy_. **Limegreen** , CTBS stands for “Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills.” I took it annually in the Midwest in elementary school in the 80s. Basic standardized, fill in the bubble tests. **CalMeachem** , these words are from the memory skills section. They would read a list of very uncommon words with a brief definition. An hour or so later, you would be given a multiple choice test, where you had to match up the definition with the word. However, before you got the list of real test words, there were usually five sample words where they gave you the word and definition, plus some sample questions where you could see how they would be used later. Alate, baloon, wuzzle, yonker, lepton, sculch were sample words every year. Apparently, there are a lot of people with, “A baloo is a bear,” burned into their brains. [T-shirt](http://www.cafepress.com/unimental.64110903). I was thoroughly amused by the name of [Wuzzles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wuzzles) in the mid-80s, if not the actual show. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/23 "2012-02-05T00:11:38Z")
Younker is, by the way, a corruption of the dutch. Something like ‘Jounk Heer’, meaning young sir. (check wiki) > **[Jonkheer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonkheer)** > > Jonkheer (female equivalent: jonkvrouw; French: Écuyer; English: Squire) is an honorific in the Low Countries denoting the lowest rank within the nobility. In the Netherlands, this in general concerns a prefix used by the untitled nobility. In Belgium, this is the lowest title within the nobility system, recognised by the Court of Cassation. It is the cognate and equivalent of the German noble honorific Junker, which was historically used throughout the German-speaking part of Europe, and t The a... Yep. Reason I know this? I live near Yonkers. Which is named after a Jonkheer. > **[Adriaen van der Donck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriaen_van_der_Donck)** > > Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (c.1618 – 1655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York, is named. Although he was not, as sometimes claimed, the first lawyer in the Dutch colony (an 'honor' that befell the lesser-known Lubbert Dinclagen who arrived in 1634),\[citation needed\] Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dut... Brilliant gentleman, who I consider the first true New Yorker. (though, truth be told, could also have been corrupted from the German, because my mind is now saying it’s more of a Minnesotan word.) Sculch is also an archaic New England word. Not quite sure where it comes from, but I remember my grandfather using it. ---
**Author:** ![Danja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@Danja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danja)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/24 "2012-02-05T00:16:44Z")
Was this the same test where a korf was a tiger? ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/25 "2012-02-05T02:14:19Z")
“A baloo is a bear. A yonker is a young man. To wuzzle is to mix. A nene is a goose.” –Product of Indiana public schools in the 80s and 90s, exposed to the CAT test. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/26 "2012-02-05T02:53:03Z")
I did these tests, and I have no idea what you guys are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/27 "2012-02-05T02:59:58Z")
I was going to respond with “simba is a lion”, but the thread was totally talking about something else. Baloo. [Simba](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simba). head/smack. ---
**Author:** ![The\_V](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_V)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/28 "2013-06-04T01:49:09Z")
Because I have a thing for bears, and because the Boston Bruins are on NHL Playoffs tonight, all day I’ve had in my head, “A Bruin is a bear… To wuzzle means to mix…” It was completely driving me bat-shizz crazy, to remember how that phrase got into my head, until Google led me straight to Straight Dope. Awesomeness. Now that I can finally remember these horrific memories, I can surely blame those Clockwork-Orange’ish tests which they inflicted upon us in the late 80’s for totally driving me to illicit substances which I may or may not have ingested during the early 90’s. Bears… It always comes back to bears, doesn’t it? (jk) I’m just so glad that my baloo/Bruin question finally got solved-- muchas gracias to you, Straight Dopers 🙂 Peace! ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/29 "2013-06-04T02:04:00Z")
Sounds like I should be glad I live in the wrong country for this. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/30 "2013-06-04T11:20:32Z")
Glad I lived in the wrong decade! I don’t remember this on the standardized tests we took, and certainly no questions repeated from year to year that stood out. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/31 "2013-06-04T11:47:14Z")
Double zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/32 "2013-06-04T11:53:46Z")
A wahoo is a shrub. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/33 "2013-06-04T11:56:27Z")
A nehru is a jacket. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/34 "2013-06-04T13:00:20Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Sounds like I should be glad I live in the wrong country for this. I took these tests when I was a kid in Saskatoon; I thought CTBS stood for “Canadian Test of B.S.” I don’t remember anything specific about them, though. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/35 "2013-06-04T14:07:31Z")
So the movie should be “Bear Ballou”? ---
**Author:** ![Carpe\_beadum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Carpe\_beadum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carpe_beadum)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/36 "2014-07-30T16:53:27Z")
FYI, I taught Middle School (6-8) in central FL (Seminole, FL) during the late 80s and early 90s before the CTBS (Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills) was scrapped for FCAT testing. The CTBS (a one day test) had no demands of test security as we gave the same test EVERY year. The booklets were kept in my cabinet, but not under lock and key. Teachers had to state several seemingly nonsense statements at the start of one section of the CTBS. We were to state them with no inflection or explanation. Then later in the section, students were to find and fill in the blanks from memory. Some of the statements were quite easy for students to remember: A baloo is a bear. A younker is a young man. A teapoy is a stool. Sculch is junk. Unfortunately we now have around 35 days of standardized testing and no fun quotes to remember:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/37 "2014-07-30T17:02:48Z")
And it rises from the grave again. Baloo, for what it’s worth, _is_ Hindi for “bear”. ---
**Author:** ![Carpe\_beadum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@Carpe\_beadum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carpe_beadum)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/38 "2014-07-30T17:16:55Z")
The statements ARE the definitions of the words from other languages. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/39 "2014-07-30T17:19:41Z")
Why did everybody hate taking tests? I loved taking them. I did badly on them, because I never bothered to learn how to study for them, and I was a C student, but I loved taking tests. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/40 "2014-07-30T18:02:39Z")
So, in Jungle Book, Baloo’s name was really just Bear? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810.md?page=3)