The bear came first. Etymologists point to a proverb warning that it is not wise 'to sell the bear's skin before one has caught the bear.' By the eighteenth century, the term bearskin was being used in the phrase 'to sell (or buy) the bearskin' and in the name 'bearskin jobber,' referring to one selling the 'bearskin.' Bearskin was quickly shortened to bear. DON'T BE A BEAR