leonine
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: communications
journalism
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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’).
Inflected forms:
form: more leonine
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most leonine
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: leonines
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.
pos: adj
examples: He was of a leonine-coloured haire, sanguinocholerique, middle sized, strong.
Ti′ger. […] A fierce beaſt of the leonine kind.
Redoubted King, of courage leonine, / I mark thee, Richard!
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.
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.
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.
gloss: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.
pos: adj
examples: leonine facies
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.
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.
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.
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.
gloss: Synonym of Leonine verse (“a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme)”).
pos: noun
tags: in-plural
examples: A[llen]. The Clink of Syllables call'd Rymes, / Brought in ith' barb'rous Runick times, / To ſober Criticks ſeems to be / A paultry part of Poetry, / Becoming Monkiſh dull Divines, / VVho traded much in Leonines. / J[ohn]. Altho' to ſpoil I ſhould be ſorry, / An undergraduate Antiquary, / Yet I'll produce a Line or tvvo / Of Leonines in Cicero, / Before the Monks long time ago.
[F]rom the jingling of the Greek couplet juſt before, and ſimilar inſtances of his taſte, I am perſuaded Sir VVilliam intended theſe as Leonines perfect in their kind.
The manuscript of Trinity College, Cambridge, which we have already mentioned, was written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the proverbs which it contains are translations into Latin leonines of some of the more popular English, and, in one or two instances, Norman proverbs of that time.
Derived words: leoninely
leonine share
leoninity
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: лъвски
roman: lǎvski
lang: Catalan
word: lleoní
lang: Czech
word: lví
lang: Danish
word: løve-
lang: Dutch
word: leeuwen-
lang: Esperanto
word: leona
lang: Finnish
word: leijonamainen
lang: French
word: léonin
lang: German
word: Löwen-
lang: German
word: löwenartig
lang: Italian
word: leonino
lang: Latin
word: leoninus
lang: Malay
word: singa
lang: Malay
word: kesingaan
lang: Manx
word: lionagh
lang: Polish
word: lwi
lang: Portuguese
word: leonino
lang: Portuguese
word: leónico
lang: Russian
word: льви́ный
roman: lʹvínyj
lang: Spanish
word: leonino
lang: Ukrainian
word: ле́вовий
roman: lévovyj
lang: Ukrainian
word: леви́ний
roman: levýnyj