karu
‘bear’ · runosong lemma · Estonian and Finnish noun
| English gloss | bear |
|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun |
| Language | Estonian and Finnish |
| Total occurrences | 5,829 |
| By corpus | SKVR 158, JR 181, KR 124 poems, ERAB 5,366 |
The counts in this table cover all attested spellings of this lemma, not only the headword form; all are word occurrences, except the KR figure in the By corpus row, which counts poems.
Full dictionary entry · Search in the corpus · Geographic distribution
Attested wordforms
karu, karud, karul, karo, karule, kahr, karukene, karust, karaku, karüsõ, karuse, karut, karus, karüs, karüsõkõnõ, kahõr, karusest, karusõst, karuksi, karulle, karüstõ, karuin, karusida, karusta, karuta, karuasela, karussa, karvatsõ, karüssõst, pedästülle, peuleu, karstõ, karukesel, karuratast, karusillõ, karussid, karussõ, karussõl, karüsest, artsa … and 117 more of 157 attested forms
In Estonian dictionaries
Definitions are shown in Estonian: the source dictionaries are Estonian-language works.
EKSS
karu · 11
- 1. suur kohmakas pruuni kuni musta pika karvaga kiskjaline imetaja (Ursus arctos), pruunkaru
- 2. esineb liitsõna järelosana mitmes muus loomanimetuses; näit
EMS
karu
- pruunkaru (Ursus arctos)
- lastemängudes ja pulmanaljades esinev tegelane, sageli maskeeritud inimene
- tungraud
Karu
- koeranimi
Idamurre
karu
Sources: EKSS — Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat, Eesti Keele Instituut (CC BY 4.0) · EMS — Eesti murrete sõnaraamat, Eesti Keele Instituut · Idamurde sõnastik, Eesti Keele Instituut
English senses in context
How the AI analysis rendered this lemma in English, as a share of the entry’s analyzed uses. The analysis groups a lemma with its variant and cognate spellings, so close cognates can share one profile.
| Sense | Share |
|---|---|
| bear | 74.6% |
| bear's | 12.9% |
| bears | 11.2% |
| little | 0.9% |
| bears' | 0.4% |
| harsh | 0.2% |
| herd | 0.1% |
| karu | 0.1% |
| rough | 0.1% |
| barren | 0.1% |
Example verses
- karummissa kankaissa (SKVR I4 459.) read in context
In the barren heaths. - karu kataja kaitsijaksi (SKVR I4 1357.) read in context
The juniper a harsh protector, - kantaja karulle jäälle (SKVR II 420.) read in context
The bearer to the bear's icy waste, - karu mado kannarvon karvu (SKVR II 743.) read in context
Harsh worm, callus's growth, - karu oli murdnud musta ärja (AES, MT 3, 1 (1)) read in context
The bear had slain the black ox, - karu kallis sõiduruuna (AES, MT 3, 6 (16)) read in context
Bear the prized steed, - karu küüs oli katki (AES, MT 3, 18) read in context
The bear's claw was broken, - karu murdis musta ärja (AES, MT 3, 23) read in context
"A bear killed the black ox."
Companion words
Words that co-occur with this lemma inside the same verse line more often than chance predicts, ranked by log-likelihood (G²) over verse-level co-occurrence in SKVR, KR, JR and ERAB; only pairs seen at least 3 times.
| Word | Association (G²) | Co-occurrences |
|---|---|---|
| murdma | 2,123 | 309 |
| kus | 1,407 | 431 |
| kargama | 1,260 | 244 |
| kiskuma | 1,151 | 200 |
| trumm | 847 | 92 |
| härg | 796 | 231 |
| hunt | 671 | 133 |
| vana | 646 | 215 |
Song types
Song types of the poems attesting this lemma, as catalogued per poem in the source corpora (ERAB type names are in Estonian, SKVR names in Finnish; JR and KR poems carry no song-type record).
| Song type | Poems |
|---|---|
| Liiri-lõõri! | 448 |
| Liiri-lõõri | 192 |
| Liiri, lõõri | 144 |
| Hiire pulmad | 126 |
| Metsast mehele | 90 |
| Poisi ja neiu matus | 87 |
| Ants oli aus saunamees | 68 |
| Saunamees Ants | 63 |
Collection places
Where the poems attesting this lemma were collected; each count is the number of attesting poems recorded at that place.
| Place | Poems |
|---|---|
| Setumaa | 134 |
| Kuusalu | 127 |
| Karksi | 121 |
| Halliste | 104 |
| Haljala | 102 |
| Tarvastu | 93 |
| Paistu | 88 |
| Kolga-Jaani | 87 |
| Viljandi | 84 |
| Vigala | 63 |
Attestation over time
Poems attesting this lemma by decade of collection or publication; undated poems are not shown.
| Decade | Poems |
|---|---|
| 1820–1829 | 2 |
| 1830–1839 | 2 |
| 1840–1849 | 8 |
| 1860–1869 | 46 |
| 1870–1879 | 173 |
| 1880–1889 | 577 |
| 1890–1899 | 859 |
| 1900–1909 | 217 |
| 1910–1919 | 229 |
| 1920–1929 | 334 |
| 1930–1939 | 576 |
| 1940–1949 | 53 |
| 1950–1959 | 2 |
| 1960–1969 | 4 |
Collectors
The collectors who most often recorded poems attesting this lemma.
| Collector | Poems |
|---|---|
| Karl Voldemar Rosenstrauch | 86 |
| Richard Viidalepp (Viidebaum) | 84 |
| Karl Viljak | 76 |
| Mihkel (Tori) Ostrov | 73 |
| Oskar Philipp Kallas | 53 |
Poems attesting this lemma (60 / 3,271)
- SKVR: SKVR I4 459., SKVR I4 1357., SKVR II 420., SKVR II 743., SKVR II 921., SKVR III1 851., SKVR III2 1842., SKVR III2 2068., SKVR III2 2119., SKVR III3 2985., SKVR IV3 Vatja 4669., SKVR IV3 Vatja 4701., SKVR VII1 9., SKVR VII1 12., SKVR VII1 12 a., SKVR VII1 12 b., SKVR VII1 12 c., SKVR VII1 12 d., SKVR VII1 13., SKVR VII1 16., SKVR VII3 loitsut 251., SKVR VII3 loitsut 1075 α., SKVR VII3 loitsut 1482., SKVR VII5 loitsut 4634., SKVR VII5 loitsut 4888., SKVR VIII 1496., SKVR VIII 1497., SKVR VIII 1498., SKVR VIII 3252., SKVR VIII 5073., SKVR IX3 589., SKVR IX3 1137., SKVR IX3 1711., SKVR X1 1760 α.[[#*]], SKVR XIII4 10999.
- JR: JR 01089, JR 03349, JR 04003, JR 04610, JR 04951, JR 05344, JR 05358, JR 06578, JR 07838, JR 08059, JR 26512, JR 26975, JR 28244, JR 29778, JR 30749, JR 30783, JR 31266, JR 32038, JR 32050, JR 35665, JR 36030, JR 38874, JR 39617, JR 42274, JR 45380
Related lemmas
- Finnish cognate: karhu
About this profile
The counts and examples on this page come from the lemmatized text of four Finnic runosong corpora: SKVR, JR, KR and ERAB. English senses come from an AI analysis of the corpus; song types, collection places, collectors and dates follow each poem's own catalogue record.