Origin and history of puma

large cat peculiar to the Americas, 1774, from French couguar, Buffon's adaption (influenced by jaguar) of a word the Portuguese picked up in Brazil as çuçuarana, perhaps from Tupi susuarana, from suasu "deer" + rana "false." Another proposed source is Guarani guaçu ara. Evidentl

mid-13c., panter, another name for the leopard, from Old French pantere "panther" (12c.) and directly from Latin panthera, from Greek panther "panther, leopard," probably of Oriental origin. An ancient folk-etymology derivation from Greek pan- "all" + thēr "beast" led to many cur

Mountain laurel is from 1754; mountain-lion "puma" is from 1849, American English; the mountain goat of the Western U.S....

early 14c., perteinen, "be attached legally," from Old French partenir "to belong to" and directly from Latin pertinere "to reach, stretch; relate, have reference to; belong, be the right of; be applicable," from per "through" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through")

late 12c., from Old French lion "lion," also figuratively "hero" (12c.), from Latin leonem (nominative leo) "lion; the constellation Leo," from Greek leon (genitive leontos), a word from a non-Indo-European language, perhaps Semitic (compare Hebrew labhi "lion," plural lebaim; Eg

c. 1300, despit (n.) "contemptuous challenge, defiance; act designed to insult or humiliate someone;" mid-14c., "scorn, contempt," from Old French despit (12c., Modern French dépit), from Latin despectus "a looking down on, scorn, contempt," from past participle of despicere "loo

"lavatory," 1940, but perhaps 1922 (based on a pun of Joyce's); perhaps [Dictionary of American Slang] from French lieux d'aisances "lavatory," literally "place of ease," picked up by British servicemen in France during World War I. Or possibly a pun on Waterloo, based on water c

"messenger, envoy," late 13c. (in Anglo-Latin); c. 1200 as a surname, from Anglo-French heraud, Old French heraut, hiraut (12c.), from Frankish *hariwald "commander of an army" or a similar Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *harja "army" (from PIE root *koro- "war;" see harry)

1640s, "practicing rigorous self-denial as a religious exercise," from Latinized form of Greek asketikos "rigorously self-disciplined, laborious," from asketēs "monk, hermit," earlier "skilled worker, one who practices an art or trade," especially "athlete, one in training for th

"a dance, a ball; rowdy party, lively gathering," 1851, U.S. colloquial, probably from earlier slang shindy "a spree, row, disturbance, merrymaking" (1821). That also was the name of an early game resembling hockey (1846); in this sense the word is perhaps from shinty (1771), the