An extinct hominid postulated from bones found in Java in 1891 and originally designated Pithecanthropus erectus because it was thought to represent a species evolutionarily between apes and humans. Pithecanthropus is now classified as Homo erectus.
Also called Java man
See more at Homo erectus
First recorded in 1870–75; from New Latin: literally “ape-man”; from Greek píthēk(os) “ape” + Greek ánthrōpos “human being”
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But after further inspection, he changed the name to Pithecanthropus erectus, an upright “ape-man.”
From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2019
Heuvelmans' theory is that much of southern Asia was inhabited long ago by small, hairy descendants of Java's Pithecanthropus erectus, who were largely exterminated by the invading humans.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pithecanthropus erectus, the Javanese oldster regarded by most authorities as a very apish man, is called an apeman.
From Time Magazine Archive
The ape, of the family Australopithecus transvaalensis, lived in the Pleistocene days, when Pithecanthropus and Sinanthropus were already beating down lesser men.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Pithecanthropus" is regarded by some authorities as the direct ancestor of man, by others as a side-track failure in the attempt at the evolution of man.
From Darwin and Modern Science by Seward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
