Definition of "dinosaur" []

• Any of various extinct, often gigantic, carnivorous or herbivorous reptiles of the orders Saurischia and Ornithischia that were chiefly terrestrial and existed during the Mesozoic Era. (noun)
• A relic of the past: "living dinosaurs of the world of vegetation” ( John Olmsted). (noun)
• One that is hopelessly outmoded or unwieldy: "The old, big-city teaching hospital is a dinosaur” ( Peggy Breault). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The name dinosaur comes from the Greek words for “monstrous lizard."
• "The term "dinosaur" derived from the English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and in essence it means "terrible, powerful, wondrous lizard.""
• "The term dinosaur was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to describe a large extinct reptile."