I remember when the giant panda was rented to Taiwan, Taiwanese media argued endlessly about the name of pandas and bears, which also made the mainland people know the name of pandas and bears. Many people think that pandas are the correct name.
As the name suggests, a bear is a bear as gentle as a cat, and a panda is like a cat like a bear. Therefore, many people think that the bear is more accurate.
I once saw a saying that pandas were displayed in an exhibition hall in Sichuan before liberation. The name was cat bear at that time. However, the people had not yet accepted the influence of the new Western thoughts, and they were still used to chanting from right to left, so the panda was pronounced as panda. It was later proved that this statement was a misleading rumor.
Our country was established relatively late. In the past, most of the scientific knowledge was learned from Japan, and Japan learned from the West. Therefore, modern scientific knowledge is established in the West. As for the biological classification of pandas, it also comes from the West.
First, in 1869, a French naturalist discovered giant pandas in Ya'an area, Sichuan, my country, and named it black and white bear according to its color. It can be said that this is the simplest and most appropriate name for giant pandas. So how did it get related to the word "cat" later? This actually comes from , red panda .
The red panda was discovered by Western scientists actually earlier than the giant panda. At that time, the English name of the red panda was panda. It is said that the word originated from the Nepali word, and the definition of this word is cat bear, which is a bear like a cat. Later, the French naturalist believed that black and white bears (that is, giant pandas) and red pandas were biologically close relatives and were the same species. So the black and white bear was named giant (giant, not Giant) panda, and the panda (little panda) was named lesser (pesty). This is also the origin of the big and small things in giant pandas and red pandas. Moreover, the English name of giant pandas originally refers to the red panda, which means that the giant panda is completely relied on the name of the red panda, which is therefore related to the word "cat".
After some later verification, the saying of panda appeared in very early publications, but it was later considered to be a type-formation error, but it had a huge impact on the people. In the era of underdeveloped media, mistakes are often easily turned into rumors and are circulated as established cognitions, and it is difficult to correct them. In fact, many people think that the bear is more appropriate. Although the black and white bear is also very suitable, compared with the bear, the black and white bear is a bit rustic and too simple, while the bear is both vivid and appropriate. As for pandas, everyone is already used to it, and there is a structure with the post-position of the attribution in Chinese. Just like "leek yellow", it is not some kind of "yellow", but yellow leek. Therefore, if the word panda is understood later in the attributive, it means "cat-like bear". Of course, it is not easy for people to understand the post-position of attribution in life, so I still hope that experts can correct pandas to bears, so as not to lead to wrong cognition.
