Lexical Compendium
Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.
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thagomizer
A thagomizer is a bit of paleontology jargon referring to the spikes on a stegosaurian dinosaur.
When I was young, the Stegosaurus was my favorite type of dinosaur. I had no idea what the spikes were called until very recently though. I especially didn't know that the word was coined by none other than Gary Larson of Far Side fame.
In 1982, Gary Larson wrote a comic in which a caveman, perhaps in a teaching role, explains to an audience that these spikes were named "after the late Thag Simmons."
(link to this entry)
References:
- Wikipedia: Thagomizer Reference ID wikipedia-thagomizer
- Thagomizer: Why Stegosaurus’ Spiky Tail Was Named After A Cartoon Reference ID thagomizer-why-stegosaurus-spiky-tail-was-named-af
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