different between lizard vs saurian

English

Etymology

From Middle English lesarde, lisarde, from Anglo-Norman lusard, from Old French lesard (compare French lézard), from Latin lacertus. Displaced native Middle English aske (“newt, lizard”); see ask.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l?z.?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l?z.?d/

Noun

lizard (plural lizards)

1. Any reptile of the order Squamata that is not a snake, usually having four legs, external ear openings, movable eyelids and a long slender body and tail.
2. (chiefly in attributive use) Lizard skin, the skin of these reptiles.
   • 1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Proof”, The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.

     Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby / Silver foil to trim your wedding gown

3. (colloquial) An unctuous person.
4. (colloquial) A coward.
5. (rock paper scissors) A hand forming a "D" shape with the tips of the thumb and index finger touching (a handshape resembling a lizard), that beats paper and Spock and loses to rock and scissors in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
6. (in compounds) A person who idly spends time in a specified place, especially a promiscuous female.

   lounge lizard; lot lizard; beach lizard; truck stop lizard

Derived terms

Translations

Middle English

Noun

lizard

1. Alternative form of lesarde

English

Etymology

From Sauria (“suborder of lizards”) +? -an (“forming adjectives”), under influence from earlier French saurien

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s???i?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s??i?n/

Noun

saurian (plural saurians)

1. (properly) A reptile of the suborder Sauria.
2. (popularly, especially science fiction) Any large reptilian animal, including crocodiles and reptilian aliens.
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot, Chapter vi:

     After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar scenes of a Capronian night--that is, all but von Schoenvorts. There was less to see than to hear. From the great inland lake behind us came the hissing and the screaming of countless saurians. Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from the shore rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle--of a warm, damp atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth during the Palezoic and Mesozoic eras.

   • 1986, Kevin Eastman & al., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. I, No. 6, page 15:

     Good evening, fellow saurians, and welcome once again to the Tri-Sports Arena! I'm your host, Raz Charkov...

3. (figuratively) A lizardlike person.
   • 1974, Vladimir Nabokov, Look at the Harlequins!, p. 130:

     He was one of the very few larger saurians in the émigré marshes.

Translations

Adjective

saurian (comparative more saurian, superlative most saurian)

1. (zoology) Of or related to the members of the suborder Sauria.
2. (figuratively) Synonym of lizardlike or reptilian.

References

• “Sauria, n.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1910
• “saurian, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1910

Anagrams

• anurias, uranias

Romanian

Etymology

From French saurien

Noun

saurian m (plural saurieni)

1. saurian

Declension