dinosaurとは 意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• deinosaur (古風な用法)
• Dinosaur, dinosaurus

語源

From Ancient Greek δεινός (deinós, “terrible, awesome, mighty, fearfully great”) + σαῦρος (saûros, “lizard, reptile”). Coined as Dinosaur(s) and Dinosauria by paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841/1842.

発音

• (英国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪnəsɔː(ɹ)/
• ハイフネーション: di‧no‧saur

名詞

dinosaur (複数形 dinosaurs)

1. (sciences) Any of the animals belonging to the clade Dinosauria, especially those that existed during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are now extinct. [from c. 1840]
2. (colloquial) Any member of the clade Dinosauria other than birds.
3. (proscribed) Any extinct reptile, not necessarily belonging to Dinosauria, that existed between about 230 million and 65 million years ago.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "Not a bird, my dear Roxton - not a bird." "A beast?" "No; a reptile - a dinosaur."

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 80:

     ‘Dinosaur!’ Denham exploded. ‘By the Power! A dinosaur!’

4. (figuratively, colloquial) Something or someone that is very old or old-fashioned, or is not willing to change and adapt.
   • 1975, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., The Mythical Man-Month, published 1995:

     [The OS/360 linkage editor] is the culmination of years of development of static overlay technique. Yet it is also the last and finest of the dinosaurs, for it belongs to a system in which multiprogramming is the normal mode and dynamic core allocation the basic assumption.

   • 1999, Ron Harbin; Aaron Barker; Anthony L. Smith (lyrics かつ music), “What About Now”, performed by Lonestar:

     The sign in the window said for sale or trade on the last remaining dinosaur Detroit made.

5. (figuratively, colloquial) Anything no longer in common use or practice.

使用する際の注意点

Many animals commonly described as dinosaurs do not belong to Dinosauria, and are not true dinosaurs. These include pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. Describing these as dinosaurs is frowned upon in scientific writing but persists in the media and in everyday speech.

Conversely, not all members of Dinosauria became extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Those that survived were the ancestors of modern birds, which therefore also belong to Dinosauria. However, birds are not usually described as dinosaurs, except in some popular science writing.

同意語

• (dinosaur excluding birds): nonavian dinosaur
• (person who is very old): fossil, old fart

派生語

派生した語

• → Hindi: डायनासोर (ḍāynāsor), डाइनोसर (ḍāinosar)
• → Polish: dinozaur
• → Urdu: ڈایناسور‎

Further reading

• dinosaur on Wikipedia.