Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Deinonychus
/daɪˈnɒnɪkəs/noun
A wolf-sized predatory dinosaur of the Cretaceous, named for the sickle claw on each second toe.
The Greek roots
δεινός
deinós
terrible, fearful
ὄνυξ
ónyx
claw, fingernail
Literally: “terrible claw”
The story of the word
John Ostrom named it in 1969, and the animal changed the field: agile, fast, plainly not a sluggish reptile, and close enough to birds to push that link back into the mainstream. The velociraptors of Jurassic Park are Deinonychus in everything but the name, which the novel borrowed from a smaller Mongolian cousin. The ὄνυξ in it is the same word as the gemstone onyx, named for looking like a fingernail.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1969
Same family
onyxdinosaurparonychiaonychophagia
In a sentence
The Deinonychus mount is posed mid-stride with the killing claw held clear of the ground.