pard
A leopard; a panther.
Noun archaic, literary
- A leopard; a panther.
- Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel … - c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
- Ten Brace, and more, of Greyhounds, snowy fair, And tall as Stags, ran loose, and cours'd around his Chair, A Match for Pards in flight, in grappling, for the Bear - 1700, John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Book III:
- In a mistake of the gall-bladder for some part of South America it is mostly found in the pard […] - 1813, John Mason Good, Pantologia. A new (cabinet) cyclopædia, by J.M. Good, O. Gregory, and N. Bosworth assisted by...
Origin
From Middle English parde, from Old French, from Latin pardus, from Ancient Greek πάρδος (párdos), possibly of Iranian origin and related to other Sanskrit and Ancient Greek terms (see leopard).
Forms
Derived
Noun colloquial
- Partner; fellow; Used as a friendly appellation
- He had long believed, in secret, that his old pard, Tom Terror, was the leader of the Thugs that infested the famous pass; he was confident of it now, and it would be safe to say that, as he rode along, his neck did not...
- 'He's my pard, and you shall not bully him,' he cried. - 1898, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Man with the Watches:
- The American thrust a gold piece into his hand, saying: 'Take it, pard! it's your pot; and don't be skeer'd. This ain't no necktie party that you're asked to assist in!' - 1914, Bram Stoker, The Squaw:
Origin
From pardner (“partner”), by shortening.