panda
n.-
1 giant panda (n.) A1 Beginnera large, black-and-white bear-like animal that lives in China and eats bamboo.
a large black-and-white mammal of the bear family, native to south-central China and noted for its specialised bamboo diet.
ExampleThe children were excited to see the panda eating bamboo at the zoo.
ExampleConservation efforts have successfully increased the wild population of the giant panda, though its habitat remains fragmented by human development.
- giant panda
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2 red panda (n.) B2 Upper Intermediatea small, reddish-brown animal with a long tail that lives in the mountains of Asia.
a small arboreal mammal of the Himalayas and southwestern China, characterized by reddish-brown fur and a long, shaggy tail.
ExampleA red panda was sleeping high up in the branches of the tree.
ExampleTaxonomically distinct from the giant panda, the red panda is the only living member of its own family, Ailuridae.
- lesser panda
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3 police car (n.) C1 Advanced British English Informala British name for a small police car, often painted in two colours.
a small, marked police patrol car. Colloquial in British English; the name derives from the original black-and-white colour scheme.
ExampleA panda was parked at the corner of the street with its lights flashing.
ExampleThe local constable arrived in a panda to investigate the minor traffic disturbance reported by the shopkeeper.
- police car
- patrol car
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4 Hindu priest (n.) C2 Proficiency Technical Religiona priest in India who looks after a temple or a special place by a river.
a Brahmin who serves as the hereditary superintendent of a temple or a funeral ghat, often maintaining genealogical records for pilgrims.
ExampleThe family met with the panda to record their visit in the temple books.
ExampleThe panda at the holy site assisted the pilgrims with the necessary rituals and updated their ancestral lineage in the ancient registers.
- priest
- brahmin
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.