The term ''thagomizer'' was coined by [[Gary Larson]] in jest. In a 1982 ''The Far Side'' [[comic]], a group of [[caveman|cavemen]] are taught by a caveman lecturer that the spikes on a stegosaur's tail were named "after the late Thag Simmons".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/watch-out-for-that-thagomizer-98891562/|title=Watch Out For That Thagomizer! |last=Black|first=Riley|date=March 30, 2011|website=Smithsonian.com|access-date=May 28, 2019}}</ref>
The term was picked up initially by [[Kenneth Carpenter]], then a paleontologist at the [[Denver Museum of Nature and Science]], who used the term when describing a fossil at the [[Society of Vertebrate Paleontology]] Annual Meeting in 1993.<ref name="nsci">{{cite web|url=https://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg19125592.200-the-word-thagomizer.html|title= The word: Thagomizer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930013238/http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/mg19125592.200-the-word-thagomizer.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |website=[[New Scientist]]|date=July 8, 2006|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Thagomizer'' has since been adopted as an informal [[anatomical]] term,<ref name="TRHJ07">{{cite book |last=Holtz |first=Thomas, R. Jr. |author-link=Thomas R. Holtz Jr. |year=2007 |title=Dinosaurs: the Most Complete, Up-To-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages |publisher=Random House |___location=New York |isbn=978-0-375-82419-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dinosaursmostcom00holt/page/230 230] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dinosaursmostcom00holt/page/230 }}</ref> and is used by the [[Smithsonian Institution]],<ref name="nsci" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/dino/stegdcvr.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041214142258/http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/dino/stegdcvr.htm |archive-date=December 14, 2004 |title=Stegosaurus Changes |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleobiology |access-date=March 3, 2007}}</ref> the [[Dinosaur National Monument]], the book ''The Complete Dinosaur''<ref name="TCD">{{cite encyclopedia|first1=Peter M. |last1=Galton|author-link1=Peter Galton|editor1-last=Farlow|editor1-first=James Orville|editor2-last=Brett-Surman|editor2-first=M. K.|encyclopedia=The Complete Dinosaur|title=Stegosaurs|date=1999|publisher=Indiana University Press|pages=302|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FOViD-lDPy0C&pg=302|access-date=December 11, 2016 |quote=In all stegosaurs, the terminal tail spines (thagomizer) presumably played a role in defense. |isbn=978-0253213136}}</ref> and the BBC documentary series ''[[Planet Dinosaur]]''.<ref>{{Cite episode |title=Fight For Life |url=https://vimeo.com/131296159#t=9m14s |access-date=December 11, 2016 |series=Planet Dinosaur |network=BBC |station=BBC One |date=November 26, 2015 |season=1 |number=4 |time=9 minutes 14 seconds |quote=Stegosaurus: a heavily armored tank with a deadly weapon at the end of its tail, known as a thagomizer. |language=en}}</ref> The term has also appeared in some technical papers describing stegosaurs and related dinosaurs.<ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1371/journal.pone.0224263| issn = 1932-6203| volume = 14| issue = 11| pages = –0224263| last1 = Costa| first1 = Francisco| last2 = Mateus| first2 = Octávio| title = Dacentrurine stegosaurs (Dinosauria): A new specimen of Miragaia longicollum from the Late Jurassic of Portugal resolves taxonomical validity and shows the occurrence of the clade in North America| journal = PLOS ONE| date = 2019-11-13| pmid = 31721771| pmc = 6853308| bibcode = 2019PLoSO..1424263C| doi-access = free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1038/s41586-021-04147-1| last1 = Soto-Acuña| first1 = Sergio| last2 = Vargas| first2 = Alexander| last3 = Kaluza| first3 = Jonatan| last4 = Leppe| first4 = Marcelo| last5 = Botelho| first5 = Joao| last6 = Palma-Liberona| first6 = José| last7 = Gutstein| first7 = Carolina| last8 = Fernández| first8 = Roy| last9 = Ortiz| first9 = Hector| last10 = Milla| first10 = Verónica| last11 = Aravena| first11 = Bárbara| last12 = Manríquez| first12 = Leslie| last13 = Alarcón-Muñoz| first13 = Jhonatan| last14 = Pino| first14 = Juan| last15 = Trevisan| first15 = Christine| last16 = Mansilla| first16 = Héctor| last17 = Hinojosa| first17 = Luis| last18 = Muñoz-Walther| first18 = Vicente| last19 = Rubilar-Rogers| first19 = David| title = Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile| journal = Nature| date = 2021-12-01| volume = 600| issue = 7888| pages = 259–263| pmid = 34853468| bibcode = 2021Natur.600..259S| s2cid = 244799975}}</ref>
[[File:Thagomizer 01.jpg|thumb|Thagomizer on mounted ''Stegosaurus'' tail]]
