Leonine means of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion. It describes characteristics or appearance reminiscent of a lion, such as majesty or ferocity.
Leonine significa que é referente a, sugestivo de, ou semelhante a um leão. Descreve características ou aparência que lembram um leão, como majestade ou ferocidade.
Word | leonine |
---|---|
Date | January 22, 2018 |
Type | adjective |
Syllables | LEE-uh-nyne |
Etymology | Leonine derives from Latin leo, meaning "lion," which in turn comes from Greek leōn. Leōn gave us an interesting range of words: leopard (which derives from leōn combined with pardos, a Greek word for a panther-like animal); dandelion (which came by way of the Anglo-French phrase dent de lion—literally, "lion's tooth"); and chameleon (which combines leōn with the Greek chamai, meaning "on the ground"); as well as the names Leo, Leon, and Leonard. But the dancer's and gymnast's leotard is not named for its wearer's cat-like movements. Rather, it was simply named after its inventor, Jules Leotard, a 19th-century French aerial gymnast. |
Examples | "Jamie has a leonine aspect, with a high clear brow and soft curls eddying over his ears and along his collar." — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Harper's, March 2009 "You're a kid; you want to escape. Maybe to Edwardian England, maybe to an island of dancing lemurs, maybe through the rear of a magical wardrobe into a land of snow and ice waiting for a leonine king to bring back the sun." — Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer, 9 Mar. 2017 |
Definition | : of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion |
Tags: wordoftheday::adjective
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