saurian
/ˈsɔːrɪən
/adjective
Of or like a lizard: a table with saurian legs...
- It stood up on two thick saurian legs; it was at least 20 feet tall.
- One sinister saurian lies along the grassy banks, as patterned and prim - and primed - as a killer handbag.
- This saurian symbol of Chinese emperors has been claimed, from the mid-1980s onward, as the common patrimony of all Chinese people.
noun
Any large reptile, especially a dinosaur or other extinct form.We see literally hundreds of saurians in this sequence, representing a diverse range of species, and the excitement and beauty of the story unfold dynamically without a single spoken word....
- Megalancosaurus is one of the few putative bird ancestors among basal saurians that has been included in a more global cladistic analysis or in the context of smaller taxonomic groupings.
- Jenkins observed that in living saurians humeral motion primarily takes place perpendicular to the saddle's long axis, across the shorter, convex surface.
Origin
Early 19th century: from modern Latin Sauria (see Sauria) + -an.
dinosaur from mid 19th century:
The word dinosaur was coined in 1841, from Greek words meaning ‘terrible lizard’, the -saurus, also found in saurian (early 19th century) ‘lizard-like’. People or things that have not adapted to changing times have been condemned as dinosaurs since the 1950s.