Origin and history of pard

late 13c. (early 13c. as a surname), "large cat of the wooded country of Africa and South Asia," from Old French lebard, leupart "leopard," heraldic or real (12c., Modern French léopard), from Late Latin leopardus, literally "lion-pard, lion-panther" (the animal was thought in ancient times to be a hybrid of these two species), from Greek leopardos, from leon "lion" (see lion) + pardos "male panther," which generally is said to be connected to Sanskrit prdakuh "panther, tiger."

Largest spotted cat of the Old World, the name later also was applied to big cats in the Americas. The word is widespread in Europe: Dutch luipaard, German, Danish leopard, Spanish, Italian leopardo. Middle English spelling variants included lubard, lebarde, lypard, lyepart. Proverbial references to its inability to change its spots are from Jeremiah xiii.23. In Middle English the word is used often in heraldry, but there it refers to a lion passant gardant (as on the emblem of Edward the Black Prince).

c. 1300, partiner, "a sharer or partaker in anything," altered from parcener (late 13c.), from Old French parçonier "partner, associate; joint owner, joint heir," from parçon "partition, division. portion, share, lot," from Latin partitionem (nominative partitio) "a sharing, partition, division, distribution" from past participle stem of partire "to part, divide" (from pars "a part, piece, a share," from PIE root *pere- (2) "to grant, allot").

The form in English has been influenced by part (n.). The word also may represent Old French part tenour "part holder." From late 14c. as "one who shares power or authority with another;" the commercial sense is by 1520s. Meaning "a husband or wife, one associated in marriage with another" is from 1749.

an old name for "giraffe," late 14c., from Late Latin camelopardus, shortened from Latin camelopardalis, from Greek kamelopardalis "a giraffe," a compound of kamelos "camel" (see camel), for the long neck, and pardos "leopard, panther" (see pard (n.1)), for the spots.