different between reptile vs plesiosaur

English

Etymology

From Middle English reptil, from Old French reptile, from Late Latin r?ptile, neuter of reptilis (“creeping”), from Latin r?p? (“to creep”), from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“to creep, slink”) (Pokorny; Watkins, 1969).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p?ta?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???p.ta?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Noun

reptile (plural reptiles)

1. A cold-blooded vertebrate of the class Reptilia; an amniote that is neither a synapsid nor a bird.
2. (figuratively) A mean or grovelling person.

   • This work may, indeed, be considered as a great creation of our own; and for a little reptile of a critic to presume to find fault with any of its parts, without knowing the manner in which the whole is connected, and before he comes to the final catastrophe, is a most presumptuous absurdity.

   • "That reptile," whispered Pott, catching Mr. Pickwick by the arm, and pointing towards the stranger. "That reptile — Slurk, of the Independent!"

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, chapter XXVII:

     {...} If I pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should spurn such pity. Ellen, tell him how disgraceful this conduct is. Rise, and don’t degrade yourself into an abject reptile—don’t!’

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:reptile

Related terms

• mammal-like reptile
• Reptilia
• reptilian
• reptilianness
• reptiliology
• reptiliologist

Translations

Adjective

reptile (not comparable)

1. Creeping; moving on the belly, or by means of small and short legs.
2. Grovelling; low; vulgar.

   a reptile race or crew; reptile vices

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace

     There is also a false, reptile prudence, the result not of caution, but of fear.

   • 1797-1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel

     And dislodge their reptile souls / From the bodies and forms of men.

Synonyms

• (creeping, crawling): reptilious, creeping, crawling; reptitious (obsolete)
• (contemptible): See Thesaurus:despicable

See also

• herpetology
• Category:en:Reptiles for a list of reptiles in English
• reptile on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Peltier, peitrel, perlite

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin r?ptilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??p.til/

Noun

reptile m (plural reptiles)

1. reptile

Derived terms

• reptilien

Further reading

• “reptile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Adjective

r?ptile

1. neuter nominative singular of r?ptilis
2. neuter accusative singular of r?ptilis
3. neuter vocative singular of r?ptilis

English

Etymology

plesio- +? -saur

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pli?si?s???/

Noun

plesiosaur (plural plesiosaurs)

1. Any of several extinct marine reptiles, of the order Plesiosauria, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. [from c. 1840]
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

     "Look!" cried Olson. "Would you look at the giraffe comin' up out o' the bottom of the say?" We looked in the direction he pointed and saw a long, glossy neck surmounted by a small head rising above the surface of the river. Presently the back of the creature was exposed, brown and glossy as the water dripped from it. It turned its eyes upon us, opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted a shrill hiss and came for us. The thing must have been sixteen or eighteen feet in length and closely resembled pictures I had seen of restored plesiosaurs of the lower Jurassic.

   Synonym: plesiosaurus

Translations