Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T L Y M O N T A N A M A G A Z I N E • F A L L 2 0 1 9 46 with CHRYSTI THE WORDSMITH W I L D W E S T W O R D S I T ALL STARTED WITH A MODEST BIT OF GREEK WORD PLAY BY A 19TH CENTURY ENGLISH NATURALIST. What followed was a tsunami of tongue-tangling polysyllables. Richard Owen, born in Lancaster, England in 1804, was trained as a surgeon and anatomist, but gradually his interests turned from human anatomy to natural history. Victorian scholars of Owen's day were focusing a scientific eye on the fossilized re- mains of giant creatures weathering out of England's quarries and hillsides, and the young surgeon got caught up in the excitement. Leaving his medical practice to devote himself to paleontol- ogy, Owen was appointed superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum. Applying his knowledge of anatomy to large fossilized reptiles, Richard Owen was the first to recognize these creatures as different from modern reptiles. In an 1841 edition of Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Owen proposed a name for the tribe of enormous reptiles that lay fossilized in the ground: Dinosauria. Combining two Greek-language elements dino, meaning "horrible, fearsome," and sauros, or "lizard," Owen gave the world a new name for an old creature: the "terrifying lizard." Owens' successors followed his example and applied classic-language names to newly-discovered species of terrifying lizards: triceratops (1890), "three-horned face," ceratosaurus (1884), "horned lizard" and velociraptor (1924), "speedy robber." e name of one of Montana's ancient residents, tyrannosaurus, was coined in 1906 by American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn. T HE DOG HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN ADMIRED AS THE EMBODIMENT OF DEVOTION AND FI- DELITY. Wherever the dog is not considered man's best friend or working partner, this animal is food-robber, livestock-chaser and flea-bearer. Consider all the English expressions reflecting a more or less negative sentiment toward canis familiaris: dog face, dog breath, sick as a dog, and dog in the manger. One expression involving our four-legged friends stands in opposition to those above: to put on the dog, meaning "dress in fine and fashionable toggery." is popular American English idiom resists scrutiny. No one knows exactly why a dog in this case is associated with fashion, but the expression has been popular with Americans for a century and a half now. e Oxford English Dictionary traces an early citation of the phrase to 1865. e most reasonable—though admittedly unsupported— explanation for the emergence of this phrase is the notion of a tiny, non-working, mollycoddled dog accompanying its well-heeled owner. One who strolls about in expensive threads toting a pampered canine could be "putting on the dog." D I N O S A U R P U T O N T H E D O G

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