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"Christopher was looking at his most pardish, beautiful and slim and young …"
I came across this word today in Iris Murdoch's 'A word child'. Shorter Oxford has 'parded' [spotted as a panther, leopard] and 'pard'[a partner, a mate - slang, chiefly US, mid-19th century].
Neither is exactly appropriate in the context -- anyone else come across this word before? Unfortunately, we can no longer ask the author (whose novels I am currently reading and enjoying).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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paulb, I think the (leo)pardish meaning fits the best,
given the context you put, Sweetie. Feline=graceful,
sinuous, etc. Seems to me that I have come across this word before, and that it was in a book written some generations ago, and it had that feline meaning.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I've not seen this usage before, but it strikes me as very descriptive of certain young men who are elegant, graceful - and predatory!
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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had he meant 'leopardlike' (and he may well have), he might better have used 'pardine' (see bovine, vulpine, corvine, canine, asinine, etc.) -- to my eye this flows better:
"Christopher was looking at his most pardine, beautiful and slim and young …"
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>he might better have used 'pardine'<
To my thinking, 'pardish' is more instantly interpretable than 'pardine' would have been. Not sure why. If I'd written it, I confess it would probably have been 'pard-like'.
(And I believe you meant 'she might better have?!?)
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm sorry, I meant that pardine is the accepted word for leopardlike (and I didn't take note of the author's gender and fell back on my habit (YART) of using the manly personal pronoun. ;)
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Carpal Tunnel
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The scientific name of the Spanish lynx is Felis lynx pardina. The villain in English mummers plays is sometimes called the "Black King of Pardine." The latter suggests a place name, no?
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Pooh-Bah
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A very useful list, tsuwm - from which I gather that several Buffaloes standing in a row might be described as "Side be Side Bisontine" 
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