α. 1800s– bear paw.
β. 1800s– bear's paw.
bear pawn.
/ˈbɛː pɔː/, U.S. /ˈbɛr ˌpɔ/, /ˈbɛr ˌpɑ/, Canadian English /ˈber ˌpɒː/ North American (chiefly Canadian).
An oval or circular snowshoe constructed from a wooden frame and animal-hide webbing, used on snowy, mountainous terrain.
ΚΠ
1811 D. Thompson Jrnl. 28 Apr. (1950) vi. 145 A snowy Morng but moderate day..[I] made a pair of Bear Paws and netted them.
1919 Outing Nov. 86/3 In the case of the bear paw, however, the more even distribution of weight owing to the absence of a tail allows one to dig in with a firm foot-hold at each step.
2015 @dlenrow 20 Oct. in twitter.com (accessed 20 June 2019) @SmallFootEU Just backed this. Good stuff. Can't wait. Long way from wooden bear-paws and leather bindings.
Compounds
As a modifier, designating a snowshoe or its shape, as in bear paw shape, bear paw shoe, bear paw snowshoe, etc.
ΚΠ
1897 Forest & Stream 25 Sept. 244/2 Kearney had his home-made ‘bear paw’ shoes along, and he did very well with them.
1936 N. A. D. Armstrong Yukon Yesterdays 102 All he could obtain was two pairs of ‘Bear Paw’ shoes, which are about the same size as the face of an ordinary tennis racket.
1975 Canad. Mag. (Toronto, Ont.) 8 Mar. 12/4 Cree snowshoes six feet long, beaver-tail and bearpaw shapes for working in close quarters in the bush.
2010 Post-Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota) (Nexis) 25 Dec. Oxbow rents out 30 pairs of bear paw snowshoes for children and has maybe 50 pairs of military surplus ones for adults.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2020; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1811