hominin

English

Etymology

From translingual Hominini, from the stem of Latin homo (“man”). Compare hominid.

Pronunciation

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Noun

hominin (plural hominins)

1. (paleontology) Any member of the taxonomic tribe Hominini, the evolutionary group that includes modern humans and now-extinct bipedal relatives. [from 20th c.]

   Hypernym: hominid

   • 2009, The Human Lineage, page 432:

     [...] prefer the third explanation for the advanced-looking features of Neandertals (Chapter 7) and the Ngandong hominins (Chapter 6), but they have had little to say about the post-Erectine archaics from China.

   • 2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 151:

     Caspari and Lee carried out comparisons ranging from ancient hominins such as australopithecines through to Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, assessing the ratios of young adults to old adults.

   • 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 119:

     This means that, in addition to democracy and gorillas, we must now credit Greece with being the cradle of the hominins - of which we humans are the only living representatives.

Derived terms

• Denisova hominin

Translations

member of the tribe Hominini

• German: Hominini pl
• Turkish: hominini pl, insanımsı pl