lion

• lyon (obsolete)

From Middle English lyoun, lion, leon, borrowed from Old French lion, from Latin leō, (accusative: leōnem), from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn). Some argue that it is a borrowing from a Semitic language; however evidence is not clear and the relation with Proto-Semitic *labiʾ- is not solid. Semitic "labi/lavi" could either be a parent term to the Greek one or both could have evolved independently from a now lost root. Doublet of Leo, leu, lev, and Lyon.

• enPR: lī'ən, IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪən

lion (plural lions or lion, feminine lioness)

1. A big cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly much of Europe.

   Tigers and lions share a common ancestor from a few million years ago.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 14, page 311:

     For with ſuch puiſſance and impetuous maine / Thoſe Champions broke on them, that forſt the fly, / Like ſcattered Sheepe, whenas the Shepherds ſwaine / A Lyon and a Tigre doth eſpye, / With greedy pace forth ruſhing from the foreſt nye.

   1. (in particular) A male lion, as opposed to a lioness.
2. (by extension) Any of various extant and extinct big cats, especially the mountain lion.
3. A Chinese foo dog.
4. An individual who shows strength and courage, attributes associated with the lion.
   • 2003, Peter Armstrong and Angus McBride, Stirling Bridge & Falkirk 1297–98: William Wallace's Rebellion:

     It was said of [Edward Plantaganet] that 'he was a lion for pride and ferocity but a pard for inconstancy and changeableness, not keeping his word or promise but excusing himself with fair words'.

5. A famous person regarded with interest and curiosity.
   • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], OCLC 364546898:

     During this period, we were the lions of the neighbourhood; and, no doubt, strangers from the ​distant villages were taken to see the "Karhowrees" (white men), in the same way that countrymen, in a city, are gallanted to the Zoological Gardens.

   • 1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

     Such society was far more enjoyable than that of Edinburgh, for here he was not a lion, but a man.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 84:

     The men were delighted to go, and became the lions of the following season in Adelaide.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “ch. 4”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], OCLC 365836:

     Rose Waterford was a cynic. She looked upon life as an opportunity for writing novels and the public as her raw material. Now and then she invited members of it to her house if they showed an appreciation of her talent and entertained with proper lavishness. She held their weakness for lions in good-humoured contempt, but played to them her part of the distinguished woman of letters with decorum.

   • 1965 August, Mississippi Phil Ochs, “The Newport Fuzz Festival”, in The Realist‎, number 61, retrieved 2022-11-13, page 11:

     Heated comments were exchanged, and, before anyone could say, "festival," the two lions of the folk power structure were rolling in the dirt.

6. A light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   lion:  

7. (historical) An old Scottish coin, with a lion on the obverse, worth 74 shillings.

• (individual Panthera leo): pride

• (Panthera leo): cougar, leopard, panther, puma, tiger
• (male lion individual): cub, lioness

• → Hawaiian: liona
• → Japanese: ライオン (raion)
• → Maia: laion
• → Tokelauan: leona

lion (not comparable)

1. Of the light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion.

• lion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Panthera leo on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• lion on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Appendix:Animals
• Appendix:English collective nouns

• Nilo-, Olin, lino, loin, noil

From Old French lion, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin leō, leōnem, from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn).

• IPA^(key): /ljɔ̃/

• audio

  (file)

• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /li.ɔ̃/
• (Quebec)

  audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔ̃
• Homophones: lions, Lyon

lion m (plural lions, feminine lionne)

1. (zoology) lion
   1. (specifically) male lion
2. (figuratively) lion (brave person)

   Se défendre comme un lion, ― to defend oneself with great courage

3. (heraldry) lion
4. (figuratively, dated) lion (celebrity; famous person)
5. (dated) a style of elegant young man that came after the dandy

• avoir mangé du lion
• golfe du Lion
• lion des montagnes
• lionne (“lioness”)
• lionceau (“lion cub”)
• part du lion

• Haitian Creole: lyon
• Mauritian Creole: lyon
• Seychellois Creole: lyon

• “lion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• loin

From Spanish león.

lion

1. lion

From English leone.

lion

1. leone (currency of Sierra Leone)

lion

1. Alternative form of lyoun

• leon, leun, liun, lÿon

Semi-learned borrowing from Latin leō, leōnem, derived from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn).

lion m (oblique plural lions, nominative singular lions, nominative plural lion)

1. lion (animal)

• Middle French: lyon
  • French: lion
    • Haitian Creole: lyon
    • Mauritian Creole: lyon
    • Seychellois Creole: lyon
• Norman: lioun, lion, lliaon, lyõ
• Picard: lion
• → Breton: leon
• → Middle English: lyoun, lion, leon, lioun, lyon, liun, lyoone, leun, lyoon, lyown, lyun, leoun, lyone
  • English: lion (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: lion
  • Yola: leeoon, leioon

• IPA^(key): /liˈuŋ/

lion m

1. lion (animal)

   Synonym: leon