Terminology of the past and present

[Carol]

Hello Carol,

Indeed.. It's here..

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?p=174975

kindly

Phil

Source: Casebook Forums thread

Hello Phil,

How did you do that?

Questioningly
Carol

[Carol]

Thanks Debra for the article link. As it is a Canadian newspaper article I'm sure the word 'pard' means 'partner'. Judging from the article, Le Grand was a nasty piece of work, just like Jack. Just a play on words, I think, and a good way of attracting the reader's attention. As Archaic has already said the Victorians enjoyed word play and my own late Victorian bound volumes of Punch (all 5 of them!) show this was so. The 'educated' Victorian was not shy to do the same even with Greek, Latin and French! Although I think they were just showing off then!

Carol

[Carol]

Archaic's post showing the cartoon of Lord Randolph Churchill and his new beard, titled 'The Bearded Pard', I think was just another example of a late Victorian 'showing off' his knowledge of Shakespeare. According to The Oxford Universal Dictionary 'pard' is Middle English for leopard or panther, the origin of the word going back to ancient Greece or earlier.

The next entry says:
Pard. slang, chiefly U.S. 1872. (For pardner, PARTNER.) A partner, mate.

Carol

[Carol]

Referring to my post number 32:
I meant to add that both JTR and Le Grande were London monsters and as the JTR murders only took place a few years before no-one would have forgotten about them yet (as if one could!).
Carol

[Steven Russell]

It must mean partner. Out of interest though, I was watching QI the other night and it was stated that the three lions present on the badges of the England football team are, in heraldic terms, leopards. Apparently they did not make the distinction between the two beasts and "leopard" actually means "bearded lion". Presumably as opposed to a lion without a beard like a lioness or juvenile. Leo = lion, pard = beard.

Something like that anyway. But QI information should be treated with caution - I recently lost a guinea claiming that Jaffa Cakes did not contain oranges. Bloody Stephen Fry. National Treasure my arse.

Best wishes,
Steve.

[Archaic]

Vocabulary Challenge

Leo = lion, pard = beard.

> Without looking it up, does anybody know what a Camel-leopard is?



It was the old English term for giraffe, because they were thought to resemble camels with spotted coats like leopards.

I love the word; it sounds so exotic. "Goodbye, dear. I'm off to the zoo, to visit the camel-leopards..."

Ye olde Archaic