ursine

See also: Ursine

English

WOTD – 22 December 2007

Mid 16th century, from Latin ursīnus, adjectival form of ursus (“bear”).

ursine (comparative more ursine, superlative most ursine)

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of bears.
- 1832, Godfrey Mundy, Pen and Pencil Sketches, Being the Journal of a Tour in India, London: John Murray, Vol. 1, Chapter VI, p. 320,
  The British chief having undergone the ursine embrace of the Seikh monarch, the whole cavalcade proceeded towards the town.
- 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 8,
  […] the old man's eccentricities, sometimes bordering on the ursine, repelled the juniors […]
- 2004, in Donald G. Lindburg and Karen Baragona (eds.), Giant Pandas: Biology and Conservation, Berkeley: University of California Press, Part Two, Introduction, p. 77,
  […] we noted that a preponderance of the evidence supports an ursine origin for the giant panda.
Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the bear subfamily Ursinae.
- 2004, in Donald G. Lindburg and Karen Baragona (eds.), Giant Pandas: Biology and Conservation, Berkeley: University of California Press, Part Two, Introduction, p. 37,
(entomology, of caterpillars) Covered in stiff bristles.

of or relating to bears

ursine (plural ursines)

ursīne

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