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”
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But after further inspection, he changed the name to Pithecanthropus erectus, an upright “ape-man.”
From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2019
People talked of Pithecanthropus as of Pitt or Fox or Napoleon .
From Time Magazine Archive
Though definitely human, he was generally regarded as somewhat older than Pithecanthropus.
From Time Magazine Archive
The two most ancient fossil humans known are Sinanthropus pekinensis, the old man of China, and Pithecanthropus erectus, the ape man of Java.
From Time Magazine Archive
Lastly, Dubois has discovered in Java the cranium of Pithecanthropus erectus which is intermediate between that of the orang-utan and man.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
