Agency Dictionary

Dinosaur

nounPronunciation: /ˈdaɪ.nə.sɔːr/

In Portuguese: Dinossauro

Business & Organizations

What does “Dinosaur” mean?

Informally, a person, organization, or established institution that has survived for a long time, sometimes perceived as traditional or resistant to change. In business, it highlights corporate longevity across eras.

Etymology

From the scientific Latin Dinosauria, a name created by the English anatomist Richard Owen in the early 1840s from Greek deinos ("terrible, fearfully great") and sauros ("lizard"). Owen used it for a group of large fossil reptiles then newly described. The figurative use, for a person or institution seen as old, large and slow to change, is from the 20th century.

Usage note

Said of a company or a person, the word is usually dismissive: too big or too old to adapt. Used with affection, as in "a dinosaur of the internet", it stresses age and survival instead.

Synonyms

relic
fossil
veteran
old-timer
survivor

Word family

dinosaurian

Usage examples

We were acquired in 2022 by Realtor.com one of the first dot coms, a truly dinosaur of the internet, founded in 1997 and still up and running today as one of the major real estate listing websites in the US.

Concepts

Source editions

Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.

Creative.7 - Pedro SampaioJuly 17, 2023Read the edition

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