Leonine

 WORD OF THE DAY

leonine / adjective / LEE-uh-nyne

Definition
: of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion

Examples
“As I tried harder and harder ... I began to understand more about what [Fabio] meant at the time, to both me and to his fans. For me, I kind of thought he was just a hood ornament of '90s masculinity. Heroic and leonine, ripped like He-Man but draped in finely tailored Italian linen. There always seemed to be a wind machine plugged in somewhere just out of his frame.”
— Jason Sheeler, People.com, 11 Aug. 2021

Most famously, leonine tenor saxophonist Von Freeman remains a symbol of the music even after his death here in 2012, at age 88.
— Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 22 Sep. 2019

Did You Know?
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.