Hear us roar! Most people or characters described as leonine aren’t cowardly (with one famous exception, of course), but rather noble, strong, regal, or possessed of similarly positive virtues associated with pride-forming big cats.
Leonine clawed its way into the English language from the Latin word
leo (“lion”), which in turn comes from the Greek word
leōn. Today, we have an interesting range of words that relate back to
leōn:
leopard (
leōn +
pardos, a Greek word for a panther-like animal);
chameleon (
leōn + the Greek
chamai, meaning “on the ground”); and 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 Léotard, a 19th-century French aerial gymnast.
