panther
(ˈpænθə(r))
Forms: 3–6 panter, 4–6 pantere, (5 panteere), 5–6 panthere, (7 -ar), 5– panther.
[ME. pantere, a. OF. pantère (Ph. de Thaun, 12th c.), mod.F. panthère, ad. L. panthēra, ad. Gr. πάνθηρ. (The solitary instance in OE. is merely an alien word from L or Gr.)
The subjective analysis of the name, as from Gr. παν- all + θήρ beast, gave rise to many fancies and fables: see Ph. de Thaun Bestiaire 224, etc.]
1. Another name for the Leopard (Felis pardus); popularly applied to large leopards.
As with other exotic animals, the name, handed down from the Latin writers, was known long before the animal; all the early references merely reflect the statements of ancient authors and their mediæval continuators. These statements were long believed to refer to a beast distinct from the leopard; a belief encouraged by there being two Latin names panthēra and pardus, as to the relation between which the ancient writers themselves were not clear, and by fabulous notions as to the generation of the leopard as a hybrid between the lion and the ‘pard’, and as to the sweet fragrance fabled to be exhaled by the panther. Down to modern times (cf. quot. 1813) the ‘panther’ was supposed to be at least a larger and more powerful kind of leopard, a distinction not scientifically tenable.
| [a 1000 Panther 12 (Gr.) Is þæt deor Pandher bi noman haten, þæs þe niðða bearn wisfæste weras on ᵹewritum cyððan bi þam anstapan.] c 1220 Bestiary 733 Panter is an wilde der, Is non fairere on werlde her. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lxxxii. (1495) 834 Lyons in Siria ben blacke wyth white speckis and ben lyke to Panteres. c 1430 Lydg. Reas. & Sens. 6438 In his sheelde, yif ye lyst here, Hath enprented a pantere. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop iv. v, Fable of a panthere whiche felle in to a pytte. 1503 S. Hawes Examp. Virt. ix. 4 And by a swete smelle I knewe a pantere. 1545 Joye Exp. Dan. vii. 98 The leoparde or spotted panthere..signifieth the kingdom of great Alexander. 1642 Rogers Naaman Ep. Ded. 4 Which (as the Panthars breath..) hath made your name sweet. 1658 Phillips, Panther, a kinde of spotted beast, the Leopard, or Libard being the Male, the Panther the Female. 1687 Dryden Hind & P. ii. 228 The Panther's breath was ever famed for sweet. 1813 Bingley Anim. Biog. I. 261 In his general habits he [the Leopard] resembles the Panther, lying in ambush for prey. 1814 Cary Dante's Inf. i. 30 Lo! a panther, nimble, light, And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd. 1891 Flower & Lydekker Mammals xi. 515 The attempts to separate a larger and more robust variety, under the name of Panther, from a smaller and more graceful form, to which the name Leopard might properly be restricted, have failed. |
| fig. 1821 Shelley Hellas 316 Her slow dogs of war..see The panther, Freedom, fled to her old cover, Amid seas and mountains, and a mightier brood Crouch round. |
2. Applied in America to the puma or cougar,
Felis concolor, also called
painter3; and, sometimes, to the jaguar,
F. onca.
| 1730 N. Jersey Archives XI. 202 On Monday..was killed..a monstrous large Panther. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 146 The jaguar or panther of America. 1808 Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 66 Saw a very large animal, which, from its leaps, I supposed to have been a panther; but if so, it was twice as large as those on the lower Mississippi. 1822 Niles' Register XXII. 304/2 A panther, nine feet long, was lately found dead on the shore of lake Ontario. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIII. 434/2 The Jaguar, or American Panther,..is the form of the Leopard found in the New World. It is..the Panther or Great Panther of the furriers. 1843 Marryat M. Violet xliv. 369 note, The puma, or red panther, is also called ‘American lion, cougar’. 1894 Cent. Mag. Apr. 849 The panther was long called a ‘tyger’ in the Carolinas, and a ‘lyon’ elsewhere. |
3. fig. a. Applied to a fierce or savage man.
| 1868 Sat. Rev. 18 Jan. 75/2 Even authoresses seem to accept with perfect equanimity the idea that taming the male panther is out of the question. |
b. ellipt. f. Black Panther s.v. black a. 19; also used
attrib. or as adj.| 1968 Guardian 28 June 20/7 The Panthers wear a uniform consisting of Black Leather jacket and beret. 1968 Listener 5 Sept. 290/2 The hotel cops, baited in the beginning not only by rocks and bottles but by language of insane obscenity, and having waded into the advance guard of panthers, militants white and black, perambulating trouble-makers, then went berserk. 1970 G. Jackson Let. 4 Apr. in Soledad Brother (1971) 220 The young Panther party member, our vanguard, must be embraced, protected, allowed to develop. 1972 J. Mills Report to Commissioner 120 The Panthers are worse than the Shylocks. They won't let you alone. 1973 E. Bullins Theme is Blackness 141 A Black Panther selling Panther newspapers. Ibid., Say, brother..you Panthers sell papers just like the Muslims..don't cha? 1973 Black Panther 3 Mar. 8/1 Yet there are some people who say..that Panther rhetoric invites repression and destruction. |
c. ellipt. for
panther juice (sense 5 below).
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §100/9 Gin,..panther. 1960 Wentworth & Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 374/2 Panther,..inferior liquor, esp. gin. From ‘panther sweat’. |
† 4. Name of a (? sweet-smelling) drug.
Obs.| 1656 Acts & Ord. Parl. c. 20 (Scobell) 464 Drugs called Panther, the pound, {pstlg}2. 1662 in Stat. Ireland (1765) II. 403. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
panther jump,
panther-killing,
panther-springer,
panther-tooth,
panther-tread;
panther-like,
panther-spotted adjs.;
panther-cat, the ocelot (Funk 1895):
panther-cowry, a spotted cowry,
Cypræa pantherina of the East Indies (
ibid.);
panther juice,
panther('s) piss,
panther sweat, strong liquor,
usu. spirits,
esp. of local or home manufacture;
panther-lily,
U.S., the Californian lily,
Lilium pardalinum;
panther-moth, a collector's name for a European geometrid,
Cidaria unangulata (
Cent. Dict. 1890);
panther's bane, a plant, also called Wolf's bane;
panther-toad, a South African toad,
Bufo pantherinus (
Cassell's Encycl. Dict. 1886);
panther-wood, a variety of the citron wood or sandarach tree,
Callistris quadrivalvis (
Cent. Dict. 1890).
| 1960 J. Philips Whisper Town (1961) i. i. 4 Here's your *panther juice, Judge. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 254 An animal of the *panther kind. |
| 1857 C. Brontë Professor I. xii. 197 Envy and *panther-like deceit about her mouth. |
| 1884 Miller Plant-n. 78/1 *Panther Lily. 1900 Field 23 June 903/3 L[ilium] superbum..requires a vegetable soil like the Panther lily. |
| 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 52 *Panther's p—s, liquor, esp. spirits. 1946 T. Heggen Mister Roberts 134 ‘That whiskey they make,’ said Dowdy, ‘is really panther-piss.’ 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. i. 308 Yeah? Well did you ever drink panther piss? the liquid fuel out of torpedoes? 1973 ‘B. Mather’ Snowline v. 57 Locally distilled stuff of the genus known as panther piss. |
| 1820 Shelley Witch of Atlas xxxviii, Amid The *panther-peopled forests. |
| 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 39 Wolf or *Panther's bane..is a Root divided by Lumps or Clods. |
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 77 Some soules of this *Panther-spotted Ierusalem, may bee extraught to ioy with me. |
| 1898 G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 48 The smiter, *panther-springer, trapper sly. |
| 1929 Amer. Speech IV. 386 Whiskey is sometimes called donk or mule because of its..‘kick’... *Panther-sweat..and rat-track whiskey are less easily classified. |
| 1834 Tait's Mag. I. 341/2 With *panther-teeth their victim's heart They tear. |
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 2/1 The cat..still keeps..the bold, free *panther-tread with which it paced of yore the temple courts of Thebes. |