leopard

Etymology

From Middle English leopard, leopart, lepard, leperd, from Old French leopard (“leopard”), from Late Latin leopardus (“leopon, lipard”) from late Ancient Greek λεόπαρδος (leópardos, “leopon, lipard”), from λέων (léōn, “lion”) + πάρδος (párdos, “pard, male leopard”), from earlier πάρδαλις (párdalis, “leopard”), probably from an unattested Old Persian [Term?] term ancestral to Middle Persian palang, Khwarezmian plyk, Sogdian [script needed] (pwrδnk), Pashto پړانګ (pṛāng). Compare Persian پلنگ (palang) and Sanskrit पृदाकु (pṛdāku, “panther”).

noun

1. Panthera pardus, a large wild cat with a spotted coat native to Africa and Asia, especially the male of the species (in contrast to leopardess).
   During all such cases when we were present they responded by giving repeated alarm calls, even when the leopard was already feeding on a carcass. We wanted to determine whether vervets knew enough about the behavior of leopards to recognize that, even in the absence of a leopard, a carcass in a tree signaled the same potential danger as did a leopard itself. 1990, Dorothy L. Cheney, How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species, published 1992, page 284
   The leopard (Panthera pardus or Felis pardus cf tulliana) is a close relative of the lion, but biblical references mentioning it are very few, suggesting that it was not as common. 1998, Oded Borowski, Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel, page 201
   Leopard skins have always been desirable commodities because of their spectacular spotted patterns. 2005, Richard Ellis, Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn: The Destruction of Wildlife for Traditional Chinese Medicine, page 197
2. (inexact) A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
   1. The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), a large wild cat native to Asia.
   2. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a large wild cat native to Asia.
3. (heraldry) A lion passant guardant.
   Sometimes there is confusion over the heraldic leopard, the question being—When is a leopard not a leopard? There is a theory that the lion and leopard were the same thing, and that they were named entirely depending on their attitude—thus if the animal was passant guardant it was a leopard, but when rampant it was a lion. Nowadays a leopard is the genuine spotted article and quite unmistakeable. Some people still speak, wrongly, of the leopards of England, but it does no great harm as it is an ancient expression and everybody knows what it means. 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 68–69
4. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Phalanta, having black markings on an orange base.