Why were dinosaurs named dinosaurs? Does the word dinosaur have a meaning? Or was the name picked randomly?

GOOD QUESTION

These 'terrible lizards' have attracted attention for 150 years, since the British anatomist and palaeontologist Richard Owen invented the name. He had worked extensively on the anatomy of living animals, with a newly developed interest in fossils from Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of southern England. Owen is said to have named the dinosaurs one day in 1841, during a lecture on fossil reptiles given to a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in Plymouth. The date was variously celebrated as 30 July, 2 August or 24 August, with a television series, the publication of special books, exhibitions and even anniversary postage stamps. The dinosaur 'birthdays' attracted a lot of publicity; in particular, the BAAS returned to Plymouth for its annual meeting. But these claims for the 1991 anniversary were overhasty; the newspapers and magazines of the day show that Owen did not make this bold step until April 1842, 150 years ago....

The name means "Terrible Lizard" in Latin*, which is the language used for most scientific names because it's a dead language, no culture speaks it anymore.

The name was coined by Sir Richard Owen, who originally described the creatures as giant lizards, but it didn't take long for people to realize that they were something different than lizards.

*good call - I looked it up, it is Greek and not Latin. My mistake.

It is from Greek, not Latin, guys. Deinos means terrible, and saurus means reptile or lizard. Richard Owen studied fossils of large reptiles and decided to give them an appropriate name.

From the Greek. It means "Terrible Lizard".

dino - Terrible

saur - Lizard

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dino-

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=-saur

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dino means terrible

saur means lizard you know, tyrannosaur, allosuarus, etc

It means something like big / giant lizard...