Etymology
New Latin, from Latin homo (“human, human being”) + troglodytes (“cave-dweller”). The original name was coined by Linnaeus in 1758, and was revived as a reassignment of Pan troglodytes into the genus Homo based on the idea that chimpanzees share essentially human qualities.
Proper noun
Homo troglodytes m
- (obsolete) A species of supposed troglodytic men, now thought to be legendary, sometimes identified with the orangutan.
1827, Wilhelm Hauff, Märchen-Almanach. Novellen: Othello, Die Sängerin. Die letzten Ritter von Marienburg:Das ist ja ein Affe, der Homo Troglodytes Linnaei; ich gebe sogleich sechs Taler für ihn, wenn Sie mir ihn ablaffen, und balge ihn aus für mein Kabinett.- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1995, Karen L Anderson, Sociology : a Critical Introduction (in English), Nelson Canada, →ISBN:Homo troglodytes was reputed to live in forests, to be nocturnal, and to communicate only in hisses
- (neologism) An alternative name for Pan troglodytes (chimpanzee).
- 2013, Jim E Murphy, Confessions of a ChimpManZee, Portraits of Earth Press
- There were now three known species of humans on the planet: Homo sapiens, Homo troglodytes, and Homo paniscus.
2014, Russell H. Tuttle, Apes and Human Evolution (in English), Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 27:Their scheme mirrors that of Diamond, who proposed that, as a third chimpanzee, Homo sapiens is congeneric with Homo troglodytes and Homo paniscus.