The Name of Teddy Bear

何文鵬

The lovely teddy bear can be found all around the world. You can find it not only in toy stores， but also on T-shirts， posters and more. Do you know how the teddy bear got its name？

On November 14， 1902， US President Theodore Roosevelt1 went to Mississippi2 to solve a problem. After a days work， Roosevelt went hunting. However， he was unhappy because he couldnt find any big game3 to shoot during the hunt.

Legend4 has it that his host wanted the hunting trip to be successful， so he went out and found a bear cub5 and tied it to a tree for Roosevelt to shoot. But Roosevelt refused and asked him to set it free.

After hearing about this， artist Clifford Berryman drew a cartoon of Roosevelt and the bear. He then published the cartoon in The Washington Post6.

A few days later， a shopkeeper saw the cartoon and had his wife make many toy bears based on the bear in the cartoon. They named them after Roosevelts nickname Teddy. In early 1903， they sold these teddy bears in the shop and many people came to buy them.

Notes：

1. Theodore Roosevelt： 西奧多·羅斯福（1858年—1919年），人稱老羅斯福，昵稱泰迪（Teddy）。美國歷史學家、政治家，第26任總統。他的獨特個性和改革主義政策，使他成為美國歷史上最偉大的總統之一。

2. Mississippi： /?mIsI?sIpI/ n. 密西西比河

3. game： /geIm/ n. 野味，這里指野生動物。

4. legend： /?led?（?）nd/ n. 傳說

5. cub： /k?b/ n. 野獸幼崽

6. The Washington Post： 《華盛頓郵報》