Dinosaurs have been extinct for 65 million years, but they still maintain a ferocious reputation. Most of them have long, impressive-sounding names, in Latin or Greek. Velociraptor, triceratops, stegosaurus... But if you translate these names into English, they suddenly sound very mediocre. Pterodactyl means “wing finger”, because they had fingers at the top of each wing. Archaeopteryx means “old wing”, because… they had wings, and they’re old. Meanwhile, triceratops means “three horn face”, and ichthyosaur means “fish lizard”. Both of these are self-explanatory. Next, we have stegosaurus, “roof lizard”, velociraptor, “quick plunderer”, and pachycephalosaurus, which means “thick head lizard”. Again, these names are very underwhelming.
In fact, there are only two dinosaurs whose names sound impressive in English. Firstly, tyrannosaurus rex, which translates as “tyrannical lizard king.” And secondly, brontosaurus, which means “thunder lizard”. However, brontosaurus was recently reclassified. It’s now known as apatosaurus, which means “deceit lizard”.
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