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tiger

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Tiger and TIGER

English

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Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From Middle English tygre, in part from Old English tigras (pl.), in part from Anglo-Norman tigre, both from Latin tigris, from Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬙𐬌𐬔𐬭𐬌 (tigri, “arrow”), 𐬙𐬌𐬖𐬭𐬀 (tiγra, “pointed”)). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to pierce, prick, be sharp”). Compare English stick.

Pronunciation

Noun

tiger (plural tigers)

  2. Panthera tigris, a large predatory mammal of the cat family, indigenous to Asia.
    Hypernym: felid
    Hyponyms: tiger cub, tigress
    1. A male tiger; as opposed to a tigress.
      Coordinate term: tigress
  3. Certain other animals that resemble true tigers in appearance, pattern, colouration, etc.
    1. (inexact) A sabre-toothed tiger (any felid in subfamily †Machairodontinae).
    2. (inexact) A Tasmanian tiger, †Thylacinus cynocephalus.
    3. (obsolete) A jaguar.
      • 1887, James George Frazer, Totemism, page 20:
        Similar is the test among the Moxos of Peru. One of their totems is the tiger; and a candidate for the rank of medicine-man must prove his kinship to the tiger by being bitten by that animal and surviving the bite.
    4. Certain insects:
      1. A tiger moth in the family Arctiidae.
      2. A tiger beetle.
      3. Any of the three Australian species of black-and-yellow striped dragonflies of the genus Ictinogomphus.
      4. A tiger butterfly in tribe Danaini, especially subtribe Danaina.
  4. (heraldry) A representation of a large mythological cat, used on a coat of arms.
    • 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, page 69:
      The heraldic tiger is a mythical beast, quite unlike a real tiger which is described in heraldry as a Bengal tiger. The ordinary tiger has no stripes, has a horn protruding from its nose, has tusks like a boar and a tufted mane, and has a lion's tail instead of a tiger's.
  5. (South Africa, dated but still used) A leopard.
    • 1907, Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, Jock of the Bushveld, Longmans, published 1976, →ISBN, page 251:
      Jim remarked irrelevantly that tigers were 'schelms' and it was his conviction that there were a great many in the kloofs round about.
  6. A relatively small country or group of countries with a fast-growing economy.
    • 2000, Jagdish Handa, Monetary Economics, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 709:
      In this scenario, the growth rates are higher for the economic tigers than for the other economies.
    • 2009, Fabrizio Tassinari, Why Europe Fears Its Neighbors, ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 21:
      Then came the 2008 credit turmoil and ensuing economic slump, which not only belittled the huge economic and social gains of the various Baltic and Celtic Tigers, as well as of several former communist nations of Central Europe.
    • 2014, Emmanuel Akyeampong, Robert H. Bates, Nathan Nunn, James Robinson, Africa's Development in Historical Perspective, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 287:
      Once colonial or settler rule ended, such enterprises either lost the crutches of state support or became “white elephants,” draining resources from the wider economy. This was an important factor holding back the emergence of African tigers.
  7. (obsolete) A servant in livery, who rides with his master or mistress.
  8. (US, slang) A person who is very athletic during sexual intercourse.
    • 2010, Jeff Wilser, The Maxims of Manhood:
      Don't […] Tell your roommate that you heard the walls shaking all night, and it sounds like he's a real tiger in the sack.
  9. (figurative) A ferocious, bloodthirsty and audacious person.
  10. A pneumatic box or pan used in refining sugar.
Usage notes

In heraldry, many writers use spellings such as tyger or tygre to distinguish the mythological beast from the natural tiger (also blazoned Bengal tiger), which also occurs in heraldry.

Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Fijian: taika
  • → Maori: taika
  • → Rarotongan: taika
  • → Volapük: tigrid
  • → Welsh: teigr
Translations

References

“tiger”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Etymology 2

From the mascot of Princeton (a tiger), which led to early cheerleaders calling out "Tiger" at the end of a cheer for the Princeton team.

Noun

tiger (plural tigers)

  1. A final shouted phrase, accompanied by a jump or outstretched arms, at the end of a cheer.
    • 1868, Punch: Or the London Charivari - Volume 55, page 231:
      He spoke with a very strong Scotch accent, and is by no means a graceful orator, but he produced througout a most favourable impression upon all his hearers, and especially upon the students, one of whom shouted as the speaker closed, 'Long Live PRESIDENT M'COSH!' and then proposed three cheers, which were given with a will, followed by the usual tiger and ' rocket.'
    • 1941, Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington:
      . . . every blue coat in the audience sprang to his feet, with three times three and a tiger.
    • 2008, D. C. Beard, The Outdoor Handy Book: For Playground, Field, and Forest, page 413:
      One Brooklyn military company has a “tiger” composed of a provincial expression borrowed from the farmers. When drawled out by a hundred throats the phrase "I-wanter-know!" always produces a laugh.

Anagrams

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Cornish

Cornish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia kw

Etymology

Borrowed from English tiger.

Pronunciation

Noun

tiger m (plural tigres or tigri)

  1. tiger

Derived terms

  • Tiger Bengal (“Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)”)
  • Tiger China Dyghow (“South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis)”)
  • Tiger Eyndo-China (“Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti)”)
  • Tiger Malaya (“Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)”)
  • Tiger Siberia (“Siberian tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)”)
  • Tiger Sumatera (“Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae)”)

Mutation

More information unmutated, soft ...

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

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Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia da

Etymology

From German Tiger, from Latin tigris.

Pronunciation

Noun

tiger c (singular definite tigeren, plural indefinite tigere or tigre)

  1. tiger

Declension

More information common gender, singular ...

Derived terms

  • tigerøje

References

Iberian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unknown. Most likely unrelated to Proto-Celtic *tigernos (“lord, ruler”).

Determiner

tiger

  1. our

References

  • Villamor, Fernando (2020) A basic dictionary and grammar of the Iberian language

Middle Dutch

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French tigre, from Latin tigris.

Noun

tiger m

  1. tiger

Inflection

More information singular, plural ...

Descendants

Further reading

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Middle English

Noun

tiger

  1. alternative form of tygre

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Bokmål Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nb

Etymology

From Latin tigris.

Noun

tiger m (definite singular tigeren, indefinite plural tigere or tigre or tigrer, definite plural tigerne or tigrene)

  1. a tiger (Panthera tigris)

Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology

From Latin tigris.

Noun

tiger m (definite singular tigeren, indefinite plural tigrar, definite plural tigrane)

  1. a tiger (Panthera tigris)

Derived terms

References

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *tīgr (“tiger”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈti.ɡer/, [ˈti.ɣer]

Noun

tiger m (nominative plural tigras)

  1. tiger
    • c. 1000, Ælfric of Eynsham, transl., Hexameron of St. Basil‎:
      Hwæt ðā God ġeworhte ðurh his wunderlīċan mihte eall nȳtencynn on heora cynrynum, and ðā wildan dēor ðe on wudum eardiað, and eall ðæt fīðerfōte byð of ðǣre foresǣdan eorðan, and eall wyrmcynn ðā ðe crēopende bēoð, and ðā reðan lēon, ðe hēr on lande ne bēoð, and ðā swiftan tigres, and ðā syllican pardes, and ðā eġeslīċan beran, and ðā ormǣtan ylpas.
      Then, through his wonderful might, God created all the kinds of animals according to their kinds, and the wild animals that dwell in the woods, and all the four-footed creatures of the aforementioned earth, and all the kinds of creeping reptiles, and the savage lions, which do not live here, and the swift tigers, and the marvelous leopards, and the fearful bears, and the huge elephants.

Declension

Strong a-stem:

More information singular, plural ...

Derived terms

Descendants

Slovene

Slovene Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sl

Etymology

Ultimately from Ancient Greek τίγρις (tígris), from Iranian (compare Avestan 𐬙𐬌𐬔𐬭𐬌 (tigri, “arrow”), 𐬙𐬌𐬖𐬭𐬀 (tiγra, “pointed”)).

Pronunciation

Noun

tígər m anim (female equivalent tīgrica)

  1. tiger

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.
More information Masculine anim., hard o-stem, nom. sing. ...

Derived terms

  • balijski tigər
  • bengȃlski tígər
  • indonẹ́zijski tígər
  • javȃnski tígər
  • južnokitȃjski tígər
  • kȃspijski tígər
  • malẹ́zijski tígər
  • pérzijski tígər
  • sibȋrski tígər
  • sumatrȃnski tígər
  • trinilski tigər

Further reading

  • “tiger”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025
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Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Pronunciation

Noun

tiger c

  1. tiger (animal)
    Tigrar har ränder
    Tigers have stripes
    Det är lätt att blanda ihop lejon och tigrar
    It's easy to mix up lions and tigers
    • 1995, Charta 77, “Lilla björn och lilla tiger [Little bear and little tiger]”, in Tecken i tiden [Sign of the times]‎:
      En björn och en tiger mot drömmarnas land, där solen som stiger alltid är varm. Tillsammans på stigen som leder dom fram.
      A bear and a tiger towards the land of dreams, where the sun that rises ["the rising sun" is "den uppgående solen" instead] is always warm. Together on the path that leads them forward.

Declension

More information nominative, genitive ...

See also

Verb

tiger

  1. present indicative of tiga

References

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West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

tiger c (plural tigers, diminutive tigerke)

  1. tiger

Further reading

  • “tiger”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

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