bear [bare] minimum

M

muhammad_faisal

Member

Urdu

Hi,

I have just read the following sentence written somewhere. Is "bear minimum" in this sentence making any sense to you guys? Why he has used bear minimum in this sentence?

Our company aims to keep administrative expenses to bear minimum level.

Thanks in advance for helping me out!

👁 Keith Bradford

Keith Bradford

Senior Member

Brittany, NW France

English (Midlands UK)

This is wrong, it should be "the bare minimum" which means the absolute minimum.

Unless of course he is talking about a company that breeds bears!

BEAR:

BARE : http://www.google.fr/imgres?q=bare+...w=87&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:96

👁 suzi br

suzi br

Senior Member

Gwynedd

English / England

It is a spelling error for BARE I imagine. Bare in that case, teamed with minimum, means the smallest amount.

M

muhammad_faisal

Member

Urdu

Thanks guys for your quick response!

R

RoLaPo

New Member

English

Hello, this is my first post! I was intrigued by the etymology of the phrase, as to wether or not its folk lore alluded to a hibernating "bear" going to its "minimum" state, or "bare" ( as in scantest or Spartan) "minimum".

👁 Keith Bradford

Keith Bradford

Senior Member

Brittany, NW France

English (Midlands UK)

No folklore here at all.

Bare (from Old English bær) = naked, bareheaded, bald, destitute etc. etc. and by Middle English "Without addition, mere."

Source: OED.

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