leonine
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈliːənaɪn/
ipa: /-nɪn/
ipa: /ˈliəˌnaɪn/
Forms: form: more leonine
form: most leonine
Etymology: From Late Middle English leonin, leonine (“characteristic of a lion, lionlike”), from Old French leonin, and from its etymon Latin leōnīnus (“of or pertaining to a lion”), from leō (“lion”) (from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn, “lion”); further etymology uncertain) + -īnus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
Senses: examples: text: He was of a leonine-coloured haire, sanguinocholerique, middle sized, strong.
ref: 1669–1696 (date written), John Aubrey, “Samuel Butler (161⅔–1680)”, in Andrew Clark, editor, ‘Brief Lives,’ Chiefly of Contemporaries, […], volume I (A–H), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1898, →OCLC, page 138:
text: Ti′ger. […] A fierce beaſt of the leonine kind.
ref: 1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “Ti′ger”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume II (L–Z), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton; […], →OCLC, column 1:
text: Redoubted King, of courage leonine, / I mark thee, Richard!
ref: 1822, William Wordsworth, “[Ecclesiastical Sketches, in a Series of Sonnets. Part I. From the Introduction of Christianity into Britain, to the Consummation of the Papal Dominion.] [Sonnet] XXXIV. Richard I.”, in Henry [Hope] Reed, editor, The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hayes & Zell, […], published 1860, →OCLC, page 354, column 1:
text: Great sensibility lay in him [Edward Sterling], too; a real sympathy, and affectionate pity and softness, which he had an over-tendency to express even by tears,—a singular sight in so leonine a man.
ref: 1851, Thomas Carlyle, “Disaster on Disaster”, in The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, part II, page 303:
text: He [Walter Savage Landor] was a man of somewhat leonine aspect as regards the general appearance and expression of the head and face, which accorded well with the large and massive build of the figure, and to which a superbly curling white beard added not only picturesqueness, but a certain nobility.
ref: 1887, Thomas Adolphus Trollope, “Walter S. Landor—G. P. Marsh”, in What I Remember […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley and Son […], →OCLC, pages 245–246:
text: He [John B. Cox] is the birdwatching equivalent of a great hunter, striding along the edge of the swamp with an almost leonine confidence, his large hands gripping his binoculars like a gunslinger wields a Colt 45.
ref: 2005, Sean Dooley, “23 March, Gluepot Reserve, SA”, in The Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race against Time—A True Story about Birdwatching, Crows Nest, Sydney, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 124:
synonyms: lionesque
lionly
glosses: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.
examples: text: leonine facies
text: The most terrible variety of this hideous evil is the leonine leprosy, so called because the head of the sufferer resembles that of a lion.
ref: 1874 September 15, “Catholic Heroism”, in The Illustrated Monitor: Organ of the Confraternity of the Sacred Christ and Agony of Our Lord, […], volume I, number 2, Dublin: Joseph Dollard, […], published 1875, →OCLC, page 22, column 1:
text: From syphilis, which is also a disease whose lesions are polymorphic in character, lepra can be distinguished by […] the characteristic leonine facies of its tubercular forms.
ref: 1883, James Nevins Hyde, “Neoplastic”, in A Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Skin, […], Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry C[harles] Lea’s Son & Co., →OCLC, class IX (Of the Skin with Involvement of Other Organs), page 431:
text: A careful examination showed that the man was suffering from leprosy in an advanced stage; his face had the leonine expression, and the husky voice doubtless indicated that the disease had invaded the larynx.
ref: 1890 November, “Leprosy in Louisiana—Necessity of Providing for Lepers”, in New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, volume XVIII (New Series), number 5, New Orleans, La.: L. Graham & Son, […], →OCLC, page 396:
text: However, a head of Bes on an anthropomorphic clay vessel, dating from around 1300 bc, has been found in an Egyptian temple in Canaan, and it has been claimed that its leonine facies shows signs of advanced lepromatous leprosy.
ref: 2000, Elinor Lieber, “Old Testament ‘Leprosy’, Contagion and Sin”, in Lawrence I[rvin] Conrad, Dominik Wujastyk, editors, Contagion: Perspectives from Pre-modern Societies, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, published 2017, →ISBN, part III (Middle East and Europe), page 129:
topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
synonyms: lionesque
lionly
glosses: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.
Of a facies (“a person's facial features”): resembling those of a lion as a result of some disease, especially a form of leprosy which causes leontiasis (“a medical condition characterized by an overgrowth of the cranial and facial bones”); also, of leprosy: causing a lionlike facies.
Derived terms: leoninely
leonine share
leoninity