dinosaur English · revision 39677

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1841, Sir Richard Owen|origins=grc δεινός, grc σαῦρος}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈdaɪnəsɔː(ɹ)/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈdaɪnəsoɹ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-new|Dinosauria]], with the ending dropped,^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024) or [[m|la-new|dinosaurus]];^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002)^(ODE 2010) the scientific name was coined by the English anatomist Sir Richard Owen in 1841,^(Etymonline)^(Weekley 1921)^(Cresswell 2021) from [[grc|δεινός|tr=deinós|t=terrible, fearsome]] and [[m|grc|σαῦρος|tr=saûros|t=lizard]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(AHD 2024)^(ODE 2010) Barnhart relates the first element to Greek words for fear and traces it to the root [[ine-pro|*dwei-]],^(Barnhart 1988) and Ayto notes that the same base produced English [[dire]].^(Ayto 2005) The word for a lizard is of unknown origin.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A member of the group of extinct reptiles, many very large, that dominated life on land in the Mesozoic era: Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1841,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) and the OED's first example is from Owen's report to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, published in 1842.^(OED 2026)^(HTOED)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Ayto points out that the name, "terrible lizard", is something of a misnomer, as dinosaurs are not closely related to modern lizards.^(Ayto 2005) The figurative sense, a person or thing that is out of date or unable to adapt to change, is recorded by the OED from 1899, in the ''Washington Post'';^(OED 2026) Etymonline dates it to 1952, and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins says people have been called dinosaurs in this sense since the 1950s.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) Green's Dictionary of Slang records ''dinosaur'' for the penis in African American slang from 1980.^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1841 – coined by Richard Owen.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)

+ * 1842 – first example in print in the OED.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1899 – figurative, an outdated person or thing.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1952 – Etymonline's date for the figurative sense.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Any of a large group of extinct [[reptile|alt=reptiles]], often of enormous size, that lived on land during the [[Mesozoic]] era.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # A person, institution or thing regarded as old-fashioned and unable to [[adapt]] to change: ''The old mainframe had become a dinosaur.''^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dinosauric]]

+ * [[dinosaurian]]

+ * [[-saur]]

+ * [[duck-billed dinosaur]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[dire]]

+ * [[brontosaurus]]

+ * [[tyrannosaurus]]

+ * [[saurian]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}