Re: Pard- = feline

--- In cybalist@... s.com, patrick cuadrado <dicoceltique@ ...>
wrote:

> Leo-pard =lion + male panthère
> Gué-pard = cheetah = cat panthère
> From Latin Pardus = Tiger From Grec Pardalis From Iranian roots (?)
> I can't find more IE roots Pard- = feline/panther except Sanskrit
> Prdakuh.

A discussion of the etymology of this term (whose eventual origin,
according to A. Lubotsky, "must be sought in the Near East") can be
found in M. Witzel's paper "Linguistic Evidence for Cultural
Exchange in Prehistoric Western Central Asia" (_Sino-Platonic
Papers_ 129, Dec. 2003):

<< **pard-/pandh- "spotted animal, panther": Ved. pr.da:ku- "snake"
RV, pr.daku:- "panther snake" AV, pr.da:khu- BS'S, W. Panj. parr.a:-
, O.Iran. *pard-, cf. Khowar purdu:m- < *pr-dhu:ma-? , Bur. (Yasin)
phúrdum "adder, snake"...

The overlap between "panther" and "(spotted) snake" is due to the
fact that snakes are frequently named after a number of
characteristics of other animals and plants, in case, the spots of
the panther... Lubotsky... has pointed out that the AV snake
pr.da:ku- is called after the leopard.

The Iranian forms differ considerably: N.P. palang- "leopard, felis
pardus" < O.Iran. *pard-, Kurd. pilink-, Pashto pr.ang-, Parachi
parö:n-, cf. further Lahnda parr.a:-, Gr. párdalis-, párdos-, léo-
pardos- "leopard", all < *pard- "spotted, wild animal?"... , or
following Henning, from an older **parθ-. However, the alternate
Greek word, pánthe:r-, must be taken into consideration as well. The
original C. Asia word seems to have had the dialect variants **pard-
/pand-. >>

Regards,
Francesco

So, then, a completely ingenous question: What about panda? It's not from Chinese. Here's what Wikipedia has to say (Giant Panda)

There is no conclusive source for the origin of the Anglicized name, "panda." The closest candidate that has been accepted as the source originates in the Nepali wordponya, possibly referring to the adapted wrist bone. The Western world originally applied this name to the red panda. Until the discovery of the giant panda's relation to the red panda in 1901, the giant panda was known as "mottled bear" (Ailuropus melanoleucus) or "particolored bear."^[27]

Since the earliest collection of Chinese writings, the Chinese language has given the bear 20 different names of which the ones in use today are, 大熊貓 (dà xióng māo), literally "large bear cat," or just 熊貓 (xióng māo), "bear cat." The name may have been inspired by the giant pandas' eyes which have pupils that are cat-like vertical slits than other bear species with round pupils.^[28] Just as likely, the red panda's name was transferred to its larger cousin and labeled in texts as "large bear cat."^{[citation needed]}

Colloquially, locals from different provinces use the previously more physiologically accurate names such as 花熊 (hua xiong) "spotted bear" and 竹熊 (zhu xiong) "bamboo bear." In Taiwan, the modern name for panda is 貓熊 (māo xióng) "cat bear," where cat is the adjective and bear is the noun. Since this is grammatically correct, there is currently no effort to reverse the characters.^[29]