brontosaurus
noun
Forms brontosauruses brontosauri
- noun Any member of the genus †Brontosaurus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs with whip-like tails, which lived in present-day United States during the Late Jurassic period.
Synonyms
brontosaur thunder lizard apatosaur apatosaurus Apatosaurus excelsus
Etymology
From New Latin, from Ancient Greek roots; by surface analysis, bronto- + -saurus (“thunder lizard”), according to the notion that its massive size must have made its footsteps shake the ground.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “brontosaurus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details