Etymology
The name "Dinotopia" is a portmanteau of "dinosaur" and "utopia". Ironically, in Greek "Dinotopia" (Δεινοτοπία) means "terrible place" or "land of suffering", since the original Greek word for "dinosaur" (δεινόσαυρος) translates as "terrible lizard" and is made up of the words for "terrible" (δεινός, dinos) and "lizard" (σαύρα, savra, transliterated as saura). "Utopia" in Greek loosely translates as "a land or place that does not exist", and is made up of a negative interjection meaning roughly "no" (ου, ou) and the word for "place" (τόπος, topos). The disillusioned character Lee Crabb points out this linguistic discrepancy in the first book, claiming that humans on the island are slaves to dinosaurs.
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
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