panda
/ˈpæːndə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.65 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), a small raccoon-like animal of northeast Asia with reddish fur and a long, ringed tail.
Archaic
noun
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.
name
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "There are therefore in this district no Varna or degraded Brahmans nor are those at all disgraced who officiate in any temple as Pandas."
- "PANDA: PUNDA. Hind[i] and Beng[ali]. The proprietary or presiding priest of a Hindoo temple of Siva usually though not invariably a Brahman. The office is hereditary, and in some places, as at Benares, the Panda officiates only on particular occasions, the duties of daily worship being performed by inferior priests or Pujaris in his employ. The term is also applied to a priest who is stationary at any particular place or shrine."
- "The pilgrims are required first to bathe in the Marnikarnika Kund (or tank) near the ghât of that name, taking with them flowers and uncooked rice. [...] [T]hey must make presents to the pandas, who are certain privileged hereditary Brahmins. Whilst the pilgrim is in the water, the pandas repeat some Sanscrit verses; [...]"
- "Whenever there is a death in the family, someone will go to Hardwar to immerse the ashes of the departed. There our family has its own panda, as these priests are called, who at his death is succeeded by his son. He maintains the family records in long, old-fashioned Indian ledgers, covered in red cloth, in which he writes down the length of the page. [...] When I first visited Hardwar I only had to say I was a Tandon from Gujrat, and from a crowd of pandas our priest came forward and reeled off our whole family tree for several generations."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: निँगाले, -, पंडा, ਪਾਂਡਾ, पण्डित
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpæːndə/
- British English: /ˈpændə/
Usage
- Archaic
- Colloquial
- British usage