troglodyte
/ˈtrɒɡlədʌɪt
/noun
1(Especially in prehistoric times) a person who lived in a cave.Some may be prehistoric in origin, but most are more recent, some being occupied as houses until the 1950s - apparently the last troglodyte dwellings in this country....
- The first troglodytes to cross the valley or climb the mountain ventured forth from the family cave not because they wanted to make a scientific discovery but because something unknown lay beyond the horizon.
- The troglodyte site of Barry was continuously occupied for thousands of years.
1.1A hermit.Of the eight objects in our solar system that are indisputably planets, five are readily visible to the unaided eye and were known to the ancients, as well as to observant troglodytes....
- He then studied philosophy for a couple of years, lived as a troglodyte in Crete and had a short career as a street corner worker in the city of Groningen.
- He established his hermitage in one of the limestone quarries and lived as a troglodyte for 17 years.
1.2A person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.Its a balmy 18 degrees, but I miss the sun already (that's Celsius, for all you troglodytes still living in the 18th century)....
- And while he may or may not be a capitalist apparatchik and/or a cultural troglodyte, it seems clear that he is a babe in the woods as a nonprofit and public manager.
- I am a great deal more intelligent than these two troglodytes, and stronger than them, too.
Derivatives
troglodytic
- Only when we meet these paragons at a literary festival or a bookstore signing do we discover that they're blue-rinsed dwarfs, clownish geeks, dowdy grannies, troglodytic professors, extras from a Lord of the Rings movie.
- Now what would otherwise have been a uninviting troglodytic restaurant is transformed into what promises to become a popular meeting place for the city's chattering classes.
- It looks as if it'll get hotter day by day for the next few days, certainly over the weekend, so I shall be adopting a troglodytic existence for the duration.
troglodytical
troglodytism
- For an antidote to steel and glass troglodytism head for the soaring vaults of the church of St-Eustache, on the north side of the gardens.
- There is strong archaeological and documentary evidence that cave dwelling, or troglodytism, was very popular during medieval times, too.
- If your homeland is to survive fair and honorable, it must advance, rapidly, out of the fetid ooze of tawdriness, puerility, and troglodytism that at least one of its more vociferous citizens inhabits and spews.
Origin
Late 15th century: via Latin from Greek trōglodutēs, alteration of the name of an Ethiopian people, influenced by trōglē 'hole'.