means A large wild cat of the genus Panthera, usually referring to a black-coated (melanistic) leopard or jaguar, though loosely applied to big cats like cougars too.

from From Latin 'panthera,' borrowed from Greek 'panthēr.' The Greeks heard in it 'pan' (all) plus 'thēr' (beast) — 'the all-beast' — and ancient lore claimed the panther's sweet breath lured other animals to it. But that 'all-beast' reading is likely a folk etymology; the word probably came into Greek from an Eastern source, possibly related to Sanskrit, with its true origin lost.