leopard

name

1. A surname.

noun

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 [script needed] (palang), Khwarezmian [script needed] (plyk), Sogdian [script needed] (pwrδnk), Pashto پړانګ (pṛāng). Compare Persian پلنگ (palang) and Sanskrit पृदाकु (pṛdāku, “panther”).

1. Panthera pardus, a large wild cat with a spotted coat native to Africa and Asia.

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. Panthera pardus, a large wild cat with a spotted coat native to Africa and Asia.
3. A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.

   “There are plenty of beautiful cats among the thirty-nine species in the Felidae family, but the three leopards—clouded, common, and snow—may be the most visually stunning. Cloaked in the most beautiful fur of any cat, the reclusive clouded leopard is the Greta Garbo of the lot; it lives a solitary life in the remote jungles of Asia, from Nepal to Borneo.”

4. A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
5. A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
6. 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.”

7. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Phalanta, having black markings on an orange base.