: a person who likes or collects teddy bears
The teddy bear was invented in 1903, and was reputedly named for U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt after a political cartoon in which he was mocked for refusing to shoot a black bear during a hunting trip. While the stuffed toys became an immediate sensation, the word arctophile wasn't coined as a word to refer to a collector of teddy bears until the second half of the 20th century.
First a fad and now a mania—teddy bears have become among the most popular toys in this century, with collectors—or "arctophiles"—in nearly every state, holding tea parties for their bears, and trading bears ....
— Jeffrey Hogrefe, Vogue, August 1983
The Greek noun arktos means "bear" and gave us our word Arctic for the northernmost region of the earth. But while polar bears can be found there, that's not what led to the association. Rather, it was the use of arktos by astronomers specifically to refer to the Great Bear constellation, Ursa Major.