thagomizer
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editCoined 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- IPA(key): /ˈθæɡ.ə.maɪ.zəɹ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
editthagomizer (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
editFor more quotations using this term, see Citations:thagomizer.
Translations
editarrangement of four to ten spikes on Stegosaurus tail