pithecanthropoid

[ pith-i-kan-thruh-poid, -kuhn-throh-poid ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resembling the former genus Pithecanthropus or one of its members, now assigned to the proposed species Homo erectus.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pithecanthropoid¹

First recorded in 1885–90; Pithecanthrop(us) + -oid

Example Sentences

Roosevelt called the President of Venezuela "a pithecanthropoid," according to Morris, and once referred to the lionized George Bernard Shaw as "a blue-rumped ape."

From Time Magazine Archive

I will not mention the professors who think to define the absolute with the aid of cries that they have inherited from the pithecanthropoid monkeys, marsupials, and reptiles, their ancestors!

From Project Gutenberg

Cannibalism and even the chase show clearly that man began by becoming more rapacious and more carnivorous than his pithecanthropoid ancestor, and his cousin the ape of the present day.

From Project Gutenberg

The pithecanthropoid attendant in the white jacket hastened forward, pinned his arms behind him and dragged him down into the chair.

From Project Gutenberg

She says that our head has a very homely and bourgeois bullet shape, a sort of pithecanthropoid contour, which is revealed by a close trim.

From Project Gutenberg