The Land Before Time dictionary

The following is a list of words and terms used by the characters to describe their environment in poetic slang in The Land Before Time universe, and their parallel modern terms.

Words and meanings

B

• Belly Dragger - Crocodillians; Deinosuchus, Sarcosuchus, Rutiodon.

• Big Circle - The sun. The term "Bright Circle" is used more often.

• Big Longneck Test - A test that longnecks must take to prove if they're right to be a leader of a herd.

• Beak brain - An insult toward Flyers.

• Beak Face - A possible racial slur for Bigmouths/Swimmers and/or Flyers (used by Cera's father in The Great Valley Adventure when urging his daughter not to play with dinosaurs outside of her race).

• Beakhead - A name for flyers used when the speaker is angry or annoyed with them.
• Bigbeak - A descriptive term for Pteranodon, possibly in a derogatory fashion.

• Bigmouth¹ - Saurolophus, possibly other hadrosaurs (swimmer is used in most sequels but is less descriptive).

• Bigmouth Bellydragger - A descriptive term for Deinosuchus.

• Big Water - Ocean.

• Bonehead - Pachycephalosaurus.

• Booming Mountain - Another name for a specific mountain in the Great Valley called "Smoking Mountain".

• Bright circle - The sun.

• Bright Circle Celebration - A special celebration that some of the Great Valley dinosaurs observe. They gather to say what they have learned since the last Bright Circle Celebration and to share in tasty food that has been gathered for the celebration. It believed by some that if the celebration is done well, it will make the Bright Circle happy and the Warm Times will come again. However if the celebration is done poorly the Cold Time will be longer.

• Bubbling Goo - Mud bubbling due to volcanic activity.

• Bubbling Mud - Likely a synonym for "bubbling goo". Possibly the name of the mud hole in the Great Valley that contains it.

• Bump-head - Diplodocus, Used in The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story. Parallel of Flathead, see below.

• Buzzing Stinger - Bees and/or wasps. See also: Stinging Buzzer.

C

• Claw-hand - Struthiomimus. Used in The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story.

• Clubtail - Ankylosaurus.

• Cold Time - Winter. Also used as a measurement of time as there is one winter in each year.

• Crown-head - Pachycephalosaurus. Used in The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story. See also: Domehead, Lizard-head.

D

• Days of Rising Water - The wet season.

• Domehead - Pachycephalosaurus, Prenocephale.

• Don't count your hatchlings before they hatch! - A phrase that means to not get your hopes up on something until it happens. Similar to the human phrase, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

• Duck beak - Saurolophus. Possibly an insult as Topps used it when he was angry.

E

• Earthshake - Earthquake.

• Egg Stealer - Struthiomimus.

F

• Fast Biter - Velociraptor, Deinonychus, Utahraptor, Dromaeosaurus.

• Fast Runner - Oviraptor.

• Fast water - Fast-flowing stream or river.

• Featherhead Sharptooth - Yutyrannus.

• Fire rock - Meteoroid surrounded by fire, lava bomb.

• Fire pit - Lava pit. Similar to Gurgling Pit, which is a volcanic crater.

• Fire-river - A river of lava.

• Flathead - Possible racial slur directed against Longnecks, or more specifically Apatosaurus (Cera uses it as an insult but Petrie simply uses it as a nickname). Also possibly a descriptive name for the species.

• Flat Tooth- Herbivore. Possibly invented by Chomper.

• Flower dust - Pollen.

• Flowing fire - Lava.

• Flyer- Pterosaur, Archaeopteryx.

• Flying rock - Meteoroid or comet.

• 'Fraidy claw - An insult toward Sand Creepers meaning the receiver is cowardly.
• Frozen Sky Stars - A term for falling snowflakes; mentioned by Mr. Thicknose in The Big Freeze disbelieving what Littlefoot saw the night before.

• Frozen sky water - Falling snow. See also: "white ground sparkles".

G

• Glider - Microraptor (used by Guido in "The Hermit of Black Rock" but as he still probably didn't know what he was, or at least not met another one like him, it may have been simply to describe that he glided).

• Great Beyond - Another term for the Mysterious Beyond.

• Green Food - Plants, or more specifically, edible plants for herbivores to eat.

• Ground Prickly - A type of spiky burr.

• Gray-nose - Saurolophus. Used in The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story. See also: Bigmouth, Swimmer.

• Ground Crawlers - Crawling minibeasts e.g. beetles, earthworms and caterpillars.

• Ground Scraper - An insult toward Belly Draggers.

• Ground water - Water on the ground when comparing it to sky water.

• Gurgling Pit - Volcanic crater. Similar to fire pit, which means a lava pit.

H

• Hard Water - Ice.
• Hard Water Sweets - Grapes that are covered with Ice. Mentioned in Through the Eyes of a Spiketail by Mr. Thicknose.

• Hard water hopping - A game that is played by jumping across chunks of melting ice in a river.

• Hatch Day - Birthday; the day someone hatched. See also: Star Day.

• Hollowhorn - Parasaurolophus, Corythosaurus, Lambeosaurus.

• Hopper - frog.

• Hopper-hop - A game similar to Leapfrog where two players jump over each other.

J

• Jumping Water- Geyser.

L

• Landslide - term the characters use for an avalanche
• Leaf-eater - Herbivore.

• Lizard-head - Pachycephalosaurus. Used in "The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story" and "Friends in Need". See also: Domehead, Crown-head.

• Longneck² - Sauropods, Mussaurus.

M

• Mountains That Burn - A group of mountains seen in the first movie. Littlefoot's Mother instructs him to go past them to get to the Great Valley. They are constantly oozing lava.

• Mysterious Beyond - A term used by dinosaurs in the Great Valley to describe the areas outside of it.

N

• Night Circle - The Moon. Sometimes called the "Great Night Circle."

  

  The Night circle

• Night Flower - A type of flower that only blooms at night, and is able to cure diseases. Seen in the fourth movie.

• Night Walker - Supposedly a dinosaur/creature with big eyes that is nocturnal. Mentioned by Plower when he and his friends are describing traits of the Great Hideous Beast to Spike. When he is describing the Beast's eyes Plower says it has "The big scary eyes of a Night Walker!".

O

• Overgrown egg - An insult toward children.

P

• Pointy-face - An insult toward Threehorns.

• Pointy Seed - Pine cone.

• Puffies - Clouds. Usually called Sky Puffies.

R

• Rainbowface - Gallimimus.

• Rock Head - An insult toward Fast Biters, and possibly other Sharpteeth.

• Running Mud - Mudslide.

S

• Sand Cloud - Dust clouds produced by sandstorms.

• Sand Crawler - Another name for Sand Creepers, possibly an insult.

• Sand Creeper - Crab-like creatures.

• Sap Sucker - An insult toward herbivores.

• Scaredy Egg - A common insult on someone who's scared of something. Equivalent to the human phrase "Scaredy Cat."
• Season of New Growth - Spring.

• Sharpbeak - Ichthyornis.

• Sharptooth³ - Any carnivorous species, such as Tyrannosaurus.

• Shiny Stone - Crystal.

• Sinking Sand - Quicksand.

• Sky Colors - Rainbow.

• Sky Color Stone - Geodes.

Sky Color Stones.

• Sky Flakes - In Land Before Time 9: Journey to Big Water, Mo calls rainclouds Sky Flakes in this phrase; 'Sky Flakes make lots and lots of Sky Water'.

• Sky Fire - Lightning.

• Sky Puffies - Clouds.

• Sky star - A real star, as opposed to something star-shaped such as a tree star.

• Sky Water - Rain.

• Sleep Rumbles - Snoring.
• Sleeping Sound - Another term for snoring; Ducky mentions this to Cera in Land Before Time 3: Time of the Great Giving, when they all hear Spike sleeping.

• Sleep Story - Dream.  The word "dream" itself though is used in the 6th movie.  

• Smoking Mountain - A specific volcano in the Great Valley. Also called "Booming Mountain".

• Smoking Mountains - Volcanoes. More specifically, a chain of volcanoes near the Great Valley.

• Snapping Shell - Clam. The word 'clam' appears to be used by clams themselves though.

• Spiketail⁴ - Stegosaurus.

• Star Day - Birthday. Differs from Hatch Day (see above) in the fact that it can be told from the presence of specific stars in the night sky. Multiple species are known to record dates like this, such as Fast Runners and Clubtails. It is unknown how common this method of determining age is in the Great Valley, as the main characters (besides Ruby, the one who told them about Star Days) don't know what they are at first.

• Star Swimmer - Starfish.

• Stinkweed - Foul-smelling aquatic vegetation found in wet areas.

• Stone teeth - Stalactites.

• Stop-the-Seed - A game where two teams of players try to hit or throw a seed (a conifer cone) into a goal behind the opposing team. Similar to the human game association football, although players are allowed to carry the seed in their mouth.

• Stinky Pool - Sulphur mud pot or sulphur pool.

• Stinging Buzzer - Bees and/or wasps. See also: Buzzing Stinger.

• Story Speakers - Longnecks who travel and tell the kind's stories, myths, and history to herds of longnecks "to teach them about [the kind's] important past". It is unknown if other types of dinosaurs have their own Story Speakers or not. There is apparently a shortage of Longneck Story Speakers.

• Swarming Leaf Gobbler - Locust.

• Sweet Bubbles - Grapes.

• Swamp Stick - Supposedly a marsh plant; type unknown, possibly reed or horsetail.

• Swimmer - Saurolophus (also Bigmouth), anything that swims.
• Swimming Sharptooth - Any carnivorous dinosaur that swims; also called 'Sharptooth Swimmer' or 'Sharptooth that swims'; both other ways are present in the fifth movie.

• Swirling Wind - Tornado or hurricane.

T

• Talk-Back - Echo.

• Thicknose - Pachyrhinosaurus.

• Threehorn⁵ - Triceratops.

• Tickly Fuzzies - Hairs, fur. Also a plural of Tickly Fuzzy.

• Tickly Fuzzy - Mammal.

• Time of the Changing Tree Stars - Autumn.

• Time of Great Growing- Adolescence.

• Tree Fuzz - Moss on a tree. It can be presumed from this that moss would be called [whatever it is growing on] Fuzz. E.g. Rock Fuzz.

• Tree Parts - Roots.

• Tree star - A type of leaf shaped like a star. This term could describe maple leaves, as they take that shape.

• Tree Sweet - A type of blossom and several types of fruit.

• Twinkly - Star. Possibly invented by Littlefoot and his friends as the term 'star' is known by the characters in the series.

W

• Water Greens - Water weed or any other type of freshwater aquatic plant.
• Weed Whacker - An insult toward herbivores, possibly invented by Ozzy

• Whirling Wind - Tornado or hurricane.

• Wingbrain - An insult toward Flyers.
• Wisdom - A strategy utilized by creatures to help them survive. Alternate terms are "say-so" and "gotta-do".

• White Ground Sparkles - Snow on the ground (sometimes called simply "Ground Sparkles"). Falling snow is referred to as "Frozen Sky Stars" or "Frozen Skywater."

• White Mountain - A mountain with snow and ice on it.

Y

• Yellowbelly - Beipiaosaurus.

Notes

1. Can also be spelled "big-mouth".

2. Can also be spelled "long-neck" or "long neck".

3. Can also be spelled "sharp tooth" or "sharp teeth"..

4. Can also be spelled "spike-tail" or "spike tail".

5. Can also be spelled "three-horn" or "three horn".

Trivia

• The Bright Circle (Sun) some of the dinosaurs believe that the sun is their creator (mostly they believe the sun is watching the whole valley and the dinosaurs) could also be related to Watership Down which the rabbits believe the sun is their creator of the universe,