from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Leonine \Le"o*nine\ (l[=e]"[-o]*n[imac]n), a. [L. leoninus, fr.
leo, leonis, lion: cf. F. l['e]onin. See {Lion}.]
Pertaining to, or characteristic of, the lion; as, a leonine
look; leonine rapacity. -- {Le"o*nine*ly}, adv.
[1913 Webster]
{Leonine verse}, a kind of verse, in which the end of the
line rhymes with the middle; -- so named from Leo, or
Leoninus, a Benedictine and canon of Paris in the twelfth
century, who wrote largely in this measure, though he was
not the inventor. The following line is an example:
[1913 Webster]
Gloria factorum temere conceditur horum.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)
LEONINE, adj. Unlike a menagerie lion. Leonine verses are those in
which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end, as
in this famous passage from Bella Peeler Silcox:
The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades.
Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!"
It should be explained that Mrs. Silcox does not undertake to
teach pronunciation of the Greek and Latin tongues. Leonine verses
are so called in honor of a poet named Leo, whom prosodists appear to
find a pleasure in believing to have been the first to discover that a
rhyming couplet could be run into a single line.