# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/41 "2014-07-30T18:12:17Z")
[A simba is a lion.](https://translate.google.com/#auto/sw/lion) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/42 "2014-07-30T18:23:08Z")
_I’m gonna get you in my tent tent, tent, tent, tent We’ll find out where the **[wuzzle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH9Nbr9jBmI)** went, went, went, went, went We’ll fill his footprints with cement, ment, ment, ment We’ll dance the tango in my tent!_ V. Stanshall ---
**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, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/43 "2014-07-30T22:09:35Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > So, in Jungle Book, Baloo’s name was really just Bear? Now guess what Bagheera’s name was. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/44 "2014-07-30T22:13:52Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Baloo, for what it’s worth, _is_ Hindi for “bear”. I just found this out this past weekend, from a comment made by a friend of a friend. I was just like “Whoa!” ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/45 "2014-07-31T09:57:08Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > And it rises from the grave again. > > Baloo, for what it’s worth, _is_ Hindi for “bear”. To be exact, the Hindi for bear is Bhaloo, not Baloo. ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/46 "2014-07-31T10:00:09Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > So, in Jungle Book, Baloo’s name was really just Bear? Well, bear in Hindi is actually Bhaloo. So you have Baloo the Bhaloo – I don’t know if Kipling simply used an Anglicized pronunciation, or whether it was deliberate. Incidentally, Sher is lion/tiger, so Sher Khan is basically Tiger the tiger. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/47 "2014-07-31T10:29:07Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > So, in Jungle Book, Baloo’s name was really just Bear? “…what bear?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/48 "2014-07-31T12:25:27Z")
> [@KKKK](#): > > Incidentally, Sher is lion/tiger, so Sher Khan is basically Tiger the tiger. Wouldn’t it be more like (and I know this isn’t a precise equivalent) “King Tiger”? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/49 "2014-07-31T12:55:41Z")
> [@KKKK](#): > > To be exact, the Hindi for bear is Bhaloo, not Baloo. Probably not much point in the exactitude, since “bh” isn’t a spelling that occurs in too many English words and the Anglicised spelling “Baloo” would be an approximation of the English pronunciation of the Hindi word. The name of [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palwankar_Baloo), a splendid cricketer and subsequently campaigner for Dalit rights, I have always seen spelled without the h. And as mentioned above, “Khan” doesn’t mean “tiger” as far as I’m aware. The other animal I can think of OTTOMH whose name means what animal he is would be Hathi the elephant. (Nag, the villainous snake in _Rikki-tikki-tavi_, is of course in _The Jungle Book_ but not in the Mowgli continuity.) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/50 "2014-07-31T13:02:06Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Wouldn’t it be more like (and I know this isn’t a precise equivalent) “King Tiger”? “Lord Tiger” at any rate - Hathi (and later Mowgli himself) are top dogs in the jungle, and when Hathi tells Shere Khan to am-scray in _How Fear Came_, Shere Khan doesn’t stop to argue. I was delighted to see some of my Indian co-workers at a well-known insurance company some years back trading stocks on [this site](http://www.sharekhan.com/welcome/default.html) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/51 "2014-07-31T13:14:01Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Probably not much point in the exactitude, since “bh” isn’t a spelling that occurs in too many English words and the Anglicised spelling “Baloo” would be an approximation of the English pronunciation of the Hindi word. Yeah, and it really depends on your transliteration system. An even more accurate spelling might be “bhaaloo” as a single “a” often indicates a schwa when transliterating from Hindi script/Devanagari to the Roman alphabet (and the letter in the Hindi spelling, भालू, shows a vowel that is normally represented as “aa.”) You will notice quite a variation in spelling Hindi words in Roman script in practice. ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/52 "2014-08-01T09:51:07Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Wouldn’t it be more like (and I know this isn’t a precise equivalent) “King Tiger”? King Tiger or Lord Tiger, yes. So you have Bear the bear and Lord Tiger the tiger. ---
**Author:** ![KKKK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KKKK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KKKK)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/53 "2014-08-01T09:55:58Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Probably not much point in the exactitude, since “bh” isn’t a spelling that occurs in too many English words and the Anglicised spelling “Baloo” would be an approximation of the English pronunciation of the Hindi word. > > The name of [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palwankar_Baloo), a splendid cricketer and subsequently campaigner for Dalit rights, I have always seen spelled without the h. > > And as mentioned above, “Khan” doesn’t mean “tiger” as far as I’m aware. > > The other animal I can think of OTTOMH whose name means what animal he is would be Hathi the elephant. (Nag, the villainous snake in _Rikki-tikki-tavi_, is of course in _The Jungle Book_ but not in the Mowgli continuity.) Baloo or Balu is a regular Indian name which has nothing to do with bears. Baloo in the Jungle Book is probably (as you said) an English mispronunciation of Bhaloo. Khan doesn’t mean tiger but Sher does. Sher Khan – Lord Tiger? ---
**Author:** ![mwproto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@mwproto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwproto)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810/54 "2015-07-30T13:55:35Z")
> [@Carpe\_beadum](#): > > 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: Hi Carpe Beadum, 32 years in Middle School :eek:(slow learner) and most likely gave that test 20 times. Sculch is one of my favorite words but the definition in the Urban Dictionary may limit my use. PCSB: Meadowlawn , Azalea , Joseph L Carwise and Thurgood Marshall [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-baloo-is-a-bear/35810.md?page=2)