Other forms: lizards
A lizard is a small reptile with four legs and a tail that can grow back. A green lizard, lizards on the wall, a basking lizard.
Dropping the tail to escape is called autotomy, and the regrown one is cartilage rather than bone and never quite matches. Lizards are cold-blooded and bask to warm up before they can move fast. Note that the word displaced the older English ask, which survives in dialect as asker.
1nounlizardA small four-legged reptile with a long tail.
“A tiny lizard ran up the wall and disappeared behind the drainpipe.”
lizard is an animal.
Old French lesard comes from Latin lacertus, of obscure origin. It displaced the native English athexe.
Latin
lacertus
Old French
lesard
Anglo-Norman
lusard
Middle English
lesarde
English, today
lizard
From Middle English lesarde, lisarde, from Anglo-Norman lusard, from Old French lesard (compare French lézard), from Latin lacertus, which is of obscure origin. Displaced native aske, from āþexe (> modern English ask, askard).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA