Also 7 -e; and (erron.) 6 cameleoparde, 7–9 cameleopard; also (in Latin form) camelopardus, -pardalis, and camelopardal. [ad. L. camēlopardus, -pardalis, Gr. καμηλοπάρδαλις, f. κάμηλος CAMEL + πάρδαλις PARD: So Fr. camélopard. Confusion with leopard led to the erroneous early spelling cameleopard in med.L., Fr., and Eng., and to the vulgar pronunciation as ca:mel-leo·pard. See also CAMELION.]
1. An African ruminant quadruped with long legs, very long neck, and skin spotted like that of the panther; now more commonly called GIRAFFE.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xx. (1495), 780. Cameleopardus hyghte cameleopardalis also, and hathe the heed of a camell … and speckes of the Perde.
1572. Bossewell, Armorie, II. 53. P. beareth Or, a Cameleoparde, Sable, Maculé d’Argent.
1601. Chester, Love’s Mart., cxviii. The Horse, Cameleopard, and strong pawd Beare, The Ape, the Asse, and the most fearefull Deare.
1609. Bible (Douay), Deut. xiv. 5. The pygargue, the wild beefe, the cameloparde.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. VI. i. 464. The Giraffa or Camelopardalis, a beaste not often seene.
1653. H. Cogan, Diod. Sic., 104. Those beasts called Cameleopards are procreated of them whose name they bear.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xxx. (1737), 141. I saw some … Hyæna’s, Camelopardals.
1769. Carterer, in Phil. Trans., LX. 27. Inclosed I have sent you the drawing of a Camelopardalis.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 350. Camelopards, the loftiest and most harmless creatures that wander over the plains of … Æthiopia.
1840. Macaulay, Ranke, Ess. (1851), II. 128. When camelopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre.
2. Astr. A northern circumpolar constellation, situated between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 191/2. Camelopardalus, the camelopard or giraffe, a constellation formed by Hevelius.
