sauroid, a. and n.
(ˈsɔːrɔɪd)
[a. F. sauroïde (Agassiz), ad. Gr. σαυροειδής like a lizard, f. σαῦρο-ς lizard + -ειδής: see -oid.]
A. adj.
1. Resembling a saurian or lizard; a distinctive epithet of an order of fishes (mod.L. Sauroidei).
| 1836 Buckland Geol. & Min. xiv. §13 (1837) I. 274 M. Agassiz has already ascertained seventeen genera of Sauroid Fishes. 1849–52 Owen in Todd's Cycl. Anat. IV. 881/1 It is in this..that the Sphyrænoid fishes..approach the Sauroid type. 1860 Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 363 An Enaliosaur,—a marine reptile of large size, of sauroid figure. 1875 J. Croll Climate & T. xviii. 304 The corals and huge sauroid reptiles which then inhabited our waters. |
2. Path. Akin to sauriosis.
| 1879 St. George's Hosp. Rep. IX. 742 In parts the eruption may be called sauroid, said to have come after scarlatina. |
B. n.
1. A sauroid fish.
| 1836 Buckland Geol. & Min. xiv. §13 (1837) I. 282 note, The Pycnodonts, as well as the fossil Sauroids, have enamelled scales. 1857 Agassiz Contrib. Nat. Hist. U.S. I. 187 Ganoids; with three orders, Cœlacanths, Acipenseroids, and Sauroids. |
2. An animal belonging to the Sauroidea, the second of the three primary groups of Vertebrata in Huxley's earlier classification; afterwards named by him Sauropsida.
| 1863 Huxley Elem. Comp. Anat. v. (1864) 74 The Vertebrata are capable of being grouped into three provinces: (I.) the Ichthyoids..(II.) the Sauroids..; and (III.) the Mammals. 1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 750/2. 1886 Ibid. XX. 437/2. |
Hence sauˈroidal a. (rare) = sauroid a. 1.
| 1858 Geikie Hist. Boulder v. 63 The massive bone-covered sauroidal fish. |