Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Anthropoid
/ˈænθrəpɔɪd/adjective
Resembling a human in form, and used of apes and the higher primates.
The Greek roots
ἄνθρωπος
ánthrōpos
human being
-οειδής
-oeidḗs
having the form of
Literally: “human-shaped”
The story of the word
Greek already had anthrōpoeidēs for gods pictured in human shape, a word that turns up in arguments about whether the divine looks like us. Nineteenth-century zoology took it over for apes built on our plan, and the suborder Anthropoidea once bundled monkeys, apes and humans together before newer classifications reshuffled the branches. The insult and the taxonomy sit uncomfortably close in this word.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
anthropologyanthropomorphicphilanthropymisanthrope
In a sentence
The coffin lid was carved as an anthropoid figure, arms folded across the chest.