apemann.
/ˈeɪpman/, U.S. /ˈeɪpˌmæn/ 1. A person who resembles or mimics an ape or monkey, or who wears the skin or costume of an ape or monkey. Later also: a (fictional) person who associates with apes.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > man > [noun] > man resembling a monkey
apeman1625
monkey-man1935
1625 tr. N. Longobard Let. in S. Purchas Pilgrimes III. ii. v. 349 Comedies, Rope-runners, Tumblers, Vaulters, and Mimicke Ape-men attending the cheare with such disports as they had neuer seene in Europe.
1666 Duchess of Newcastle Blazing World 46 in Observ. Exper. Philos. Then she made a convocation of her Chymists, the Ape-men, and commanded them to give her an account of the several Transmutations which their Art was able to produce.
1798 Select. Foreign Lit. Jrnls. 1 298 The king of Dahome keeps a guard of forty ape-men as they are called.
1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes xxvi. 359 The ape-man threw the warm carcass of Numa across his shoulders and took to the trees once more.
1946 D. Thomas Let. 29 Aug. (1987) 603 Every summer some tiny little ape-man knocks him yards over the harbour-wall or bang through the chemist's window.
2011 T. Kershner Body Double vi. 58 The Ape Man. When you start to grow body hair—and how much you grow—is yet another body change that you can't really control.
2. Originally: a hypothetical creature intermediate in character and development between apes and humans. In later use: any of various early hominids, esp. of the genus Australopithecus, who share some characteristics of both apes and humans. Also in extended use. Cf. man-ape n. at man n.1 Compounds 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > protohuman > transitional types > [noun]
apeman1864
Pithecanthropus1873
Cro-Magnon1892
protohuman1899
pre-man1903
prehuman1922
prehominid1939
the world > animals > mammals > order Primates > suborder Anthropoidea (higher primates) > [noun] > group Catarrhinae (Old World monkey) > member of superfamily Hominoidea (apes and humans) > family Hominidae (humans and ancestors ) > extinct or hypothetical ape-man
missing link1820
apeman1864
Pithecanthropus1873
Oreopithecus1878
Broken Hill1921
dryopithecine1948
Zinjanthropus1959
Orrorin2001
Sahelanthropus2002
1864 J. Hunt tr. C. Vogt Lect. on Man vii. 195 The drawing of the skull of an idiot I take from Owen, as the base is also given, agrees in all but a few details with that given by Theile of his ‘ape-man’ [Ger. von seinem Affen-Menschen].
1864 Punch 3 Dec. 228/2 ‘Is man Ape or Angel ?’ ‘I’, says Mr. Disraeli, ‘am on the side of the Angel.’.. We are not surprised at his declaration—we never thought him in the least like an Ape-man.
1879 tr. E. Haeckel Evol. Man II. 182 The ape-men [Ger. die Affenmenschen], or Alali, were therefore probably already in existence toward the close of the Tertiary Epoch, during the Pliocene Period.
1895 Westm. Gaz. 17 Dec. 8/2 Professor Virchow..held that Dubois's discoveries did not at all prove the existence of an antediluvian ape-man.
1927 H. F. Osborn in E. Eyre European Civilization (1934) I. i. v. 80 We are descended from ‘dawn-men’ not from ‘ape-men’.
1937 W. Griffith tr. E. Tegla Davies in A. Richards Penguin Bk. Welsh Short Stories (1976) 143 The apemen sniffed violently, for the strange apeman had located the source of the odour.
1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) xxv. 510 Among the most ancient known remains of man's early ancestral forms (ape men), five of special interest and importance will be described.
2000 Independent 27 Apr. i. 16 (caption) Andre Keyser examines his team's historic find, which includes a complete female apeman skull.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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