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hominid

[hom-uh-nid]

noun Anthropology.

any of the modern or extinct bipedal primates of the family Hominidae, including all species of the genera Homo and Australopithecus.

Also, homonid, ho·min·i·an

[hoh-min-ee-uhn] .

Origin:
1885–90; < Neo-Latin Hominidae, equivalent to Latin homin- (stem of homō) man (see Homo) + -idae -id²

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Hominid is always a great word to know.

So is gobo. Does it mean:

a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

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Example Sentences

Their enhanced mobility might someday prove as liberating as the first upright steps of hominid ancestors long ago.

Journalists serve the public with their daily reports about our studies of flu vaccines and voting patterns and hominid fossils.

The world in which our hominid ancestors evolved was pretty similar to the world in which these monkeys live.

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Their enhanced mobility might someday prove as liberating as the first upright steps of hominid ancestors long ago.

Journalists serve the public with their daily reports about our studies of flu vaccines and voting patterns and hominid fossils.

The world in which our hominid ancestors evolved was pretty similar to the world in which these monkeys live.

Imagine an album with a photograph of each member of the hominid family.

Our hominid ancestors are forced into the water to find food.

It's hard to keep track of who's who in the hominid family tree.

Neanderthals are our closest relatives on the hominid family tree.

Fossils are the principal evidence of hominid evolution, but they take scientists only so far.

He starts fairly sedately, with chapters on hominid evolution and visual perception.

Crocodile bite marks had previously been found on hominid bones from the gorge.

The overwhelming trait of our hominid species is denial when facts conflict with self-interest.

The sculptures emphasize that our predecessor species did not simply succeed one another, each hominid more evolved than the last.

The dispute is about whether the six to seven million-year-old fossil is a hominid or an ape.

There's also a fun interactive station where you can literally morph yourself into an early hominid.

The researcher also believes that climate, food, and geography were major influences on hominid migration patterns.

One can get hung up on these squabbles and lose sight of what an outstanding find early hominid fossils really are.

Wear patterns and isotopes in the hominid teeth suggest a diet that included fruits, nuts, and other forest foods.

But the picture the authors paint of a bigger-brained hominid is fascinating nonetheless.

If chimpanzees are any indication, the early hominid diet consisted of fruits, plants and insects.

And if you were a sensible hominid ancestor, you would avoid small caves where you could be easily hunted or starved of oxygen.

By this time, the hominid lineage had forked into two branches.

If dog to fox is microevolution, then it seems that hominid to human would also be microevolution.

Their ongoing annual expeditions to this area continue to recover important hominid and faunal remains.

In the process of obtaining data from scarce early hominid fossils, scientists often have to damage the fossils.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

hominid (ˈhɒmɪnɪd)

—n
1.	any primate of the family Hominidae, which includes modern man (Homo sapiens) and the extinct precursors of man

—*adj*
2.	of, relating to, or belonging to the Hominidae

[C19: via New Latin from Latin homo man + -id²]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

hominid

1889, "family of mammals represented by man," from Mod.L. Hominidæ the biological family name, coined 1825 from L. homo (gen. hominis) "man." Hominoid "man-like" is from 1927.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

hominid

(hŏm'ə-nĭd) Pronunciation Key
Any of various primates of the family Hominidae, whose only living members are modern humans. Hominids are characterized by an upright gait, increased brain size and intelligence compared with other primates, a flattened face, and reduction in the size of the teeth and jaw. Besides the modern species Homo sapiens, hominids also include extinct species of Homo (such as H. erectus) and the extinct genus Australopithecus. In some classifications, the family Hominidae also includes the anthropoid apes.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

hominid

in zoology, one of the two living families of the ape superfamily Hominoidea, the other being the Hylobatidae (gibbons). Hominidae includes the great apes-that is, the orangutans (genus Pongo), gorillas (Gorilla), and chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan)-as well as human beings (Homo). Formerly, humans alone (with their extinct forebears) were placed in Hominidae, and the great apes were placed in a different family, Pongidae. However, morphological and molecular studies now indicate that humans are closely related to chimpanzees, while gorillas are more distant and orangutans more distant still. Since classification schemes aim to depict relationships, it is logical to consider humans and great apes as hominids, that is, members of the same zoological family, Hominidae. Within this family there are considered to be two subfamilies. One (called Ponginae) contains only the orangutans, and the other (Homininae) contains humans and the African great apes. Subfamily Homininae in turn is divided into two "tribes": Gorillini, for the African great apes and their evolutionary ancestors, and Hominini, for human beings and their ancestors. Following this classification, members of the human tribe, that is, modern human beings and their extinct forebears (e.g., the Neanderthals, Homo erectus, various species of Australopithecus), are frequently referred to as hominins.

Learn more about hominid with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Matching Quote

"The difference between humans and other organisms is that humans, having discerned something of how evolution works, are now able to confront their choices consciously. That is not the same as saying that we can now control evolution. I don't know how much of a difference it is in effect: we may be able to perceive our choices and still be unable to choose and act. By overpopulating the planet as we are now doing, for example, we are making an evolutionary choice just as unplanned as that of our hominid ancestors when they began cracking antelope and other hominids over the head with sticks. Nevertheless, we do differ from the first hominids in our having some notion of the implications of our behavior."

-David Rains Wallace

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hominid

hom·i·nid