thagomizer
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Coined by cartoonist Gary Larson in 1982. His comic strip (image on the right) shows a caveman giving a lecture illustrating this part of a dinosaur, with the caption "Now this end is called the thagomizer... after the late Thag Simmons". See -ize, -er.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
thagomizer (plural thagomizers)
- An arrangement of spikes found on the tails of various stegosaurs.
- 2001, Thomas R. Holtz with Terry Riley, The Little Giant Book of Dinosaurs, page 54:
- Like the thagomizer of the stegosaur, the ankylosaurid tail club was probably used to smash into attackers.
Quotations edit
For more quotations using this term, see Citations:thagomizer.
Translations edit
arrangement of four to ten spikes on Stegosaurus tail