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Hear me roar

Members of Panthera are distinguished by morphological features which enable them to roar (link)

Panthera includes Lions, Tigers, Leopards and Jaguars. The name comes from the Greek, pan = all, ther = beast/animal (because they can hunt pretty much what they like!)

The ther root also gives us the words:

  • Theropod (beast-foot) – a group of bipedal dinosaurs including most of the nasty/cool ones in Jurassic Park
  • Therianthropy (part-man, part beast) – the most well-known example we have is Lycanthropy (Werewolves) but as a term it also includes things like animal-headed Gods, Centaurs and animal spirit guides
  • and most curiously Treacle, which comes to us via French and Latin from the Greek word Theriac (pertaining to venomous beasts) and means antidote, a now obselete definition of treacle

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