saurian

English

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

saurian (plural saurians)

(properly) A reptile of the suborder Sauria.
(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...
(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.

reptile of the suborder Sauria

saurian (comparative more saurian, superlative most saurian)

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