camelopard
(ˈkæmɪləʊˌpɑːd, kəˈmɛləpɑːd)
Also 7 -e; and (erron.) 6 cameleoparde, 7–9 cameleopard; also (in Latin form) camelopardus, -pardalis, and camelopardal.
[ad. L. camēlopardus, -pardalis, Gr. καµηλοπάρδαλις, f. κάµηλος camel n. + πάρδαλις pard: so Fr. camélopard. Confusion with leopard led to the erroneous early spelling cameleopard in med.L., Fr., and Eng., and to the vulgar pronunciation as ˈcamel-ˈleopard. See also camelion.]
1. An African ruminant quadruped with long legs, very long neck, and skin spotted like that of the panther; now more commonly called giraffe.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xx. (1495) 780 Cameleopardus hyghte cameleopardalis also, and hathe the heed of a camell..and speckes of the Perde. 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 53, P. beareth Or, a Cameleoparde, Sable, Maculé d'Argent. 1601 Chester Love's Mart. cxviii, The Horse, Cameleopard, and strong pawd Beare, The Ape, the Asse, and the most fearefull Deare. 1609 Bible (Douay) Deut. xiv. 5 The pygargue, the wild beefe, the cameloparde. 1613 Purchas Pilgr. I. vi. i. 464 The Giraffa or Camelopardalis, a beaste not often seene. 1653 H. Cogan Diod. Sic. 104 Those beasts called Cameleopards are procreated of them whose name they bear. 1708 Motteux Rabelais v. xxx. (1737) 141 Hyæna's, Camelopardals. 1769 Carteret in Phil. Trans. LX. 27 Inclosed I have sent you the drawing of a Camelopardalis. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 350 Camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander over the plains of..æthiopia. 1840 Macaulay Ranke, Ess. (1851) II. 128 When camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. |
2. Astr. A northern circumpolar constellation, situated between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia.
| 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 191/2 Camelopardalus, the camelopard or giraffe, a constellation formed by Hevelius. |