Bear with me

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on September 19, 2009 at 08:22

In Reply to: Bear with me posted by Smokey Stovere on September 19, 2009 at 04:36:

: : Where does the phrase "bear with me" come from? Is it from a Shakespeare play?

: I don't think Shakespeare used the exact phrase "bear with me." He did use bear in the sense of pressing against resistance, or heading generally in a certain direction. In nautical terminology from Shakespeare's day and later, it nas to do with direction also.

: We (or at least we Americans) often use the verb "bear" instansitively in a directional sense. "When you come to a fork in the road, bear left." It differs, obviously, from turning left, as it also does in nautical use.

: I haven't seen any expert advice that "bear with me" has its origin in direction, but I think it does. For the sake of argument, pretend that you are going in the same direction as I, and hear me out. This is just a suggestion; I have no proof.
: SS

Actually Shakespeare uses the phrase very often, e.g:
- Julius Caesar: "Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar"
- Richard III: "My Lord of York will still be cross in talk: Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him"
- King Lear: "You must bear with me: Pray you now, forget and forgive"
- and As You Like it, in which he puns on it. Celia says: "I pray you, bear with me, I cannot go no further." Touchstone replies: "For my part, I had rather bear with [put up with] you than bear [carry] you."

Shakespeare certainly didn't invent it; it was clearly a standard part of Elizabethan speech. (It's quite possible, though, that it was the frequent occurrence of it in his plays that kept it familiar and current, and that otherwise it might simply have fallen out of use.)

The OED relates "bear with" to "bear" in the sense "sustain [anything painful or trying]; to endure, to tolerate". The "with" is paralleled in the construction "put up with". FWIW, the navigational sense of "bear" is only recorded from 1594, and would have been a technical neologism in Shakespeare's day. (VSD)

• Bear with me Smokey Stover 22/September/09