Local Names
The red panda's local names differ from place to place. The Lepcha people call it sak nam. In Nepal, the species is called bhalu biralo (bear-cat) and habre. The Sherpa people of Nepal and Sikkim call it ye niglva ponva and wah donka. The word wậː is Sunuwari meaning bear; in Tamang language, a small, red bear is called tāwām. In the Kanchenjunga region of eastern Nepal, the Limbus know red pandas as kaala, which literally means dark because of their underside pelage; villagers of Tibetan origin call them hoptongar.
Additionally, Pocock lists the vernacular names ye and nigálya ponya (Nepal); thokya and thongwa (Limbu); oakdonga or wakdonka and woker (Bhotia); saknam sunam (Lepcha). Nigálya may originate from the Nepali word निङालो niṅālo or nĩgālo meaning a particular kind of small bamboo, namely Arundinaria intermedia, but also refers to a kind of small leopard, or cat-bear. The word pónya may originate from the Nepali word पञ्जा pajā meaning claw, or पौँजा paũjā meaning paw of an animal. Nigálya pónya may translate to bamboo claw or paw.
Nigálya pónya, nyala ponga, and poonya are said to mean eater of bamboo. The name panda could originate from panjā.
In English, the red panda is also called lesser panda, though due to the pejorative implications of this name, "red" is generally preferred. Many other languages use red panda, or variations of shining/gold or lesser/small in their names for this species. For instance, червена панда in Bulgarian, panda roux in French, and panda rojo in Spanish all mean red panda. Since at least as far back as 1855, one of its French names has been panda éclatant (shining panda). In Finnish, it is called kultapanda (gold panda). Variations of lesser panda occur in French petit panda (small panda), in Spanish panda menor (lesser panda), in Dutch kleine panda (small panda), in Russian «малая панда» (malaya panda, "small panda"), in Korean 애기판다 (aeki panda, "baby panda"), in Japanese ressā panda (レッサーパンダ, transliteration of English "lesser panda"?).
Other names attributed to this species include fire cat, bright panda and common panda.
In Chinese language, the red panda is called 小熊貓 (xiǎoxióngmāo, lesser or small panda), and 红熊猫/紅熊貓 (hóngxióngmāo, red panda).
- Note: The giant panda is called 熊猫/熊貓 (xióngmāo) or 大熊猫/大熊貓 (dàxióngmāo), in which 大 literally means "giant" or "big" and 熊猫/熊貓 literally means "bear cat".
The English name firefox, from which the Firefox web browser gets its name, is a calque (literal part-by-part translation) of the Chinese word 火狐 (huǒhú), another Chinese name for the red panda. Conversely, in Chinese the word 火狐 is now used more commonly to refer to the Firefox browser.
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