leonine

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: le=o=nine

CIDE DICTIONARY

leonine, a. [L. leoninus, fr. leo, leonis, lion: cf. F. léonin. See Lion.].

 Pertaining to, or characteristic of, the lion; as, a leonine look; leonine rapacity.  [1913 Webster]
"Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum."  [1913 Webster]

Leonine verse, a kind of verse, in which the end of the line rhymes with the middle; -- so named from Leo, or Leoninus, a Benedictine and canon of Paris in the twelfth century, who wrote largely in this measure, though he was not the inventor. The following line is an example:

OXFORD DICTIONARY

leonine, adj. & n.
--adj. of Pope Leo; made or invented by Pope Leo.
--n. (in pl.) leonine verse.

Idiom

Leonine City the part of Rome round the Vatican fortified by Pope Leo IV. leonine verse 1 medieval Latin verse in hexameter or elegiac metre with internal rhyme.
2 English verse with internal rhyme.

Etymology

the name Leo (as LEONINE)

leonine, adj.
1 like a lion.
2 of or relating to lions.

Etymology

ME f. OF leonin -ine or L leoninus f. leo leonis lion

DEVIL DICTIONARY

leonine

adj. Unlike a menagerie lion. Leonine verses are those in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end, as in this famous passage from Bella Peeler Silcox:

The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades.
Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!"

It should be explained that Mrs. Silcox does not undertake to teach pronunciation of the Greek and Latin tongues. Leonine verses are so called in honor of a poet named Leo, whom prosodists appear to find a pleasure in believing to have been the first to discover that a rhyming couplet could be run into a single line.