"tiger-lion", 1748, not in OED

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/24/2011 01:31 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On Sep 24, 2011, at 9:52 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >
> > "tiger-lion", 1748, not in OED.  Perhaps deserving, since the journal
> > "Nature" used the term.
>
>"tiger-lion" is a straightforward dvandva compound, so probably not
>deserving of inclusion unless it's frequent or specialized in use.

How "specialized" is a hybrid of a tiger and a lion (the _Nature_
magazine use)?  (And that's what tigons and ligers are.)

On the other hand, there may be no way of knowing just what the 1748
tiger-lion was; there were P.T. Barnums in the 18th century too.

Joel


>OED2 does have the portmanteaus "tigon" (which i know as "tiglon";
>"tigron" is another variant) and "liger" -- which are distinct in meaning.
>
>arnold
>
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