The word “yeti” comes from Tibetan language and translates to “rocky bear”. Other names used by the people of the Himalayas refer to the yetior similar theoretical creatures include Miche (“man bear”), Mi-go (“wild man”),Bun Machi (Nepali for “Jungle Man”), Kang Admi (“snow man”) and others.
The common Western name “Abominable Snowman” that is commonly used to refer to the yeti originated in 1921. During an expedition to Mount Everest, Charles Howard-Bury claimed he discovered large footprints, which his guides said were made by “Metoh-kangmi” or “Wild Man of the Snows”. Henry Newman, a reporter for an English language newspaper in India, mistranslated the word “metoh” to mean “filthy” (or abominable), thus giving rise to the common English name for the yeti.
Legends of creatures such as the yeti exist in pre-Buddhist mythology of the people of the Himalayas, but the first reports from Western explorers would occur in the late 1800s with the reporting of unusual footprints. As more and more Westerners became enamored with scaling the icy peaks of the Himalayas, reports of ape-like creatures and strange trackways increased.
Even Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzig Norgay, the first climbers to reach the peak of Mount Everest, reported seeing strange footprints during their explorations in 1953, though Hilary didn’t believe in reports of the yeti, and Norgay believed it to be a large ape. Hilary would mount a later expedition in the 1960s in search of evidence of the yeti’s existence. He took a sample of a supposed yeti scalp kept in a monastery, and when the sample was tested, the results indicated the fur belonged to something closely related to the Himalayan serow, a member of the goat family.
