Refine this word faster
Panda
Definitions
- 1 A South Asian surname.
- 1 The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), a small raccoon-like animal of northeast Asia with reddish fur and a long, ringed tail. archaic
"The red panda's history in zoos begins some 40 years after its discovery. The first one to be seen outside of its natural range arrived at London Zoo on 22nd May 1869, [...] On arrival at the zoo, the last surviving panda was given into the care of Abraham Bartlett, the superintendent of the zoo. [...] The feeding instructions that came with the panda said it should be given milk, a little rice and grass each day. [...] Bartlett felt that the suggested diet was not adequate and set out to find what the animal would accept; [...] Unfortunately, although it ate well, this first zoo red panda was not destined for a long life, it died suddenly during the night of 12 December 1869, a little over 6 months after its arrival."
- 2 A brahmin who acts as the hereditary superintendent of a particular ghat or temple, and is regarded as knowledgeable in matters of genealogy and ritual. Hinduism
"There are therefore in this district no Varna or degraded Brahmans nor are those at all disgraced who officiate in any temple as Pandas."
- 3 reddish-brown Old World raccoon-like carnivore; in some classifications considered unrelated to the giant pandas wordnet
- 4 Ellipsis of giant panda (“Ailuropoda melanoleuca”). abbreviation, also, alt-of, attributive, colloquial, ellipsis
- 5 large black-and-white herbivorous mammal of bamboo forests of China and Tibet; in some classifications considered a member of the bear family or of a separate family Ailuropodidae wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 Ellipsis of panda car (“a black-and-white police car”). British, abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis
"Before the confrontation, the youth sighted a police personnel carrier, two dog patrol vans, a motorway style car, at least two pandas and one unmarked police car."
Etymology
Borrowed from French panda, of unclear ultimate origin but probably from the second element of nigálya-pónya, a local name for the red panda recorded in Nepal and Sikkim by Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800 or 1801 – 1894), an ethnologist, naturalist and the British Resident of Nepal, possibly from Nepali निँगाले (nĩgāle, “relating to a certain species of bamboo”) (the adjectival form of निँगालो (nĩgālo), a variant of निङालो (niṅālo, “Drepanostachyum intermedium, a species of bamboo”)) + a regional Tibetan name for the animal (compare regional Tibetan ཕོ་ཉ (pho nya, “messenger”)). Attributive uses of sense 2 (“a giant panda”) generally refer to that animal’s distinctive black and white coat colour.
Borrowed from Hindi पंडा (paṇḍā) and Punjabi ਪਾਂਡਾ (pāṇḍā), both from Sanskrit पण्डित (paṇḍita, “learned, wise; learned man, pundit, scholar, teacher; Hindu Brahmin who has memorized a substantial proportion of the Vedas”). Doublet of pundit.
See also for "panda"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: panda