leonine

adj

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.

   “He was of a leonine-coloured haire, sanguinocholerique, middle sized, strong.”

   “Ti′ger. […] A fierce beaſt of the leonine kind.”

   “Redoubted King, of courage leonine, / I mark thee, Richard!”

   “Great sensibility lay in him [Edward Sterling], too; a real sympathy, and affectionate pity and softness, which he had an over-tendency to express even by tears,—a singular sight in so leonine a man.”

   “He [Walter Savage Landor] was a man of somewhat leonine aspect as regards the general appearance and expression of the head and face, which accorded well with the large and massive build of the figure, and to which a superbly curling white beard added not only picturesqueness, but a certain nobility.”

2. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a lion; lionlike.

   “leonine facies”

   “The most terrible variety of this hideous evil is the leonine leprosy, so called because the head of the sufferer resembles that of a lion.”

   “From syphilis, which is also a disease whose lesions are polymorphic in character, lepra can be distinguished by […] the characteristic leonine facies of its tubercular forms.”

   “A careful examination showed that the man was suffering from leprosy in an advanced stage; his face had the leonine expression, and the husky voice doubtless indicated that the disease had invaded the larynx.”

   “However, a head of Bes on an anthropomorphic clay vessel, dating from around 1300 bc, has been found in an Egyptian temple in Canaan, and it has been claimed that its leonine facies shows signs of advanced lepromatous leprosy.”

3. (not-comparable)Of or pertaining to one of the popes named Leo; specifically (in Leonine City), to Pope Leo IV (r. 847–855) who ordered the building of a wall around Vatican Hill to protect what is now Vatican City, or (in Leonine Prayers) to Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903).

   “The Nineteenth and Tvventieth Days vvere ſpent in ſeeing the Monuments of the Leonine City, the Vatican Church, the Palace and Library.”

4. (not-comparable)Being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme); also (by extension), of or relating to modern verse having internal rhyme.

   “leonine rhyme”

   “In the Church of St. Dominick is a ſmall Picture of the Bleſſed Virgin, vvith the Infant JESUS in her Arms, vvell painted, and yet, appears to have been done in the Iron Age of Painting and other Arts, by the follovving verses, vvrit under it. […] Theſe Leonine Verſes, as plainly appears by them, expreſs a Senſe contrary to the Intention of the VVriter.”

   “Observe, that, if the date of this poem be true, the general opinion, that the Leonine verse owes its name to Leonius, seems to be false; […] It is not therefore very likely, as Leonius flourished in 1154, that he should give name to such Latin verses upwards of thirty years before. Indeed some people have thought that it was called after Leo, probably the Second, who lived in 684, a pope who is said to have reformed the hymns and the music of the church.”

   “[T]he Latin poetry, instead of Leonine rhymes, or attempts at regular hexameters almost equally bad, becomes, in the hands of Gunther, Gualterus de Insulis, Gulielmus Brito, and Joseph Iscanus, to whom a considerable number of names might be added, always tolerable, sometimes truly spirited; […]”

5. (alt-of, not-comparable)Alternative letter-case form of leonine (“of or pertaining to one of the popes named Leo; being or relating to a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme)”).

   “Observe, that, if the date of this poem be true, the general opinion, that the Leonine verse owes its name to Leonius, seems to be false; […] It is not therefore very likely, as Leonius flourished in 1154, that he should give name to such Latin verses upwards of thirty years before. Indeed some people have thought that it was called after Leo, probably the Second, who lived in 684, a pope who is said to have reformed the hymns and the music of the church.”

   “[T]he Latin poetry, instead of Leonine rhymes, or attempts at regular hexameters almost equally bad, becomes, in the hands of Gunther, Gualterus de Insulis, Gulielmus Brito, and Joseph Iscanus, to whom a considerable number of names might be added, always tolerable, sometimes truly spirited; […]”

noun

1. (in-plural)Synonym of Leonine verse (“a kind of medieval Latin verse, generally alternative hexameter and pentameter, with rhyming at the middle and end of a line (that is, internal rhyme)”).

   “A[llen]. The Clink of Syllables call'd Rymes, / Brought in ith' barb'rous Runick times, / To ſober Criticks ſeems to be / A paultry part of Poetry, / Becoming Monkiſh dull Divines, / VVho traded much in Leonines. / J[ohn]. Altho' to ſpoil I ſhould be ſorry, / An undergraduate Antiquary, / Yet I'll produce a Line or tvvo / Of Leonines in Cicero, / Before the Monks long time ago.”

   “[F]rom the jingling of the Greek couplet juſt before, and ſimilar inſtances of his taſte, I am perſuaded Sir VVilliam intended theſe as Leonines perfect in their kind.”

   “The manuscript of Trinity College, Cambridge, which we have already mentioned, was written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the proverbs which it contains are translations into Latin leonines of some of the more popular English, and, in one or two instances, Norman proverbs of that time.”

2. (historical)A 13th-century coin minted in Europe and used in England as a debased form of the sterling silver penny; it was outlawed under Edward I (reigned 1272–1307).

   “[I]n the raign of E[dward] I. there were divers white monies called Pollards, Crocards, Staldings, Eagles, Leonines, and Steepings artificially made of ſilver, copper, and ſulphur, and yet currant within the Realme; and for that two pieces of theſe monies were but of the value of one ſterling. King E. I. by his Proclamation utterly forbad the ſame.”

3. (alt-of)Alternative letter-case form of leonine (“a 13th-century coin minted in Europe and used in England as a debased form of the sterling silver penny”).

   “[I]n the raign of E[dward] I. there were divers white monies called Pollards, Crocards, Staldings, Eagles, Leonines, and Steepings artificially made of ſilver, copper, and ſulphur, and yet currant within the Realme; and for that two pieces of theſe monies were but of the value of one ſterling. King E. I. by his Proclamation utterly forbad the ſame.”