pithecomorphism

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noun

The state or quality of having the form of an ape; resemblance to apes.

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Meanings

nounpithecomorphism (uncountable)
  1. rareuncountableThe state or quality of having the form of an ape; resemblance to apes.

    Indeed, Leroi-Gourhan's objective, as I have said, was not to find hypothetical transitions between pithecomorphism and anthropomorphism but to spot an evolutive divergence towards a totally original way of being, that of man.

    2002, Bénédicte de Villers, “Paleoanthropology from a Phenomenological Point of View. Some Remarks about the Genetic Structures of Human Life”, in Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, editor, Life Energies, Forces and the Shaping of Life: Vital, Existential: Vital, Existential (Analecta Husserliana: The Yearbook of Phenomenological Research; 74), book I, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →DOI, →ISBN, page 74
    2 more examples

    Some are dissatisfied, call it anthropomorphism, when we venture to compare man with God. After all, men are not apes or ape-like, pithecomorphism is but an insensate dream. Without or doubt or question, man, I affirm, assert, and declare, is not an ape or ape-like.

    1877, Henry MacCormac, “God's Kingdom is a Kingdom of Reason”, in The Conversation of a Soul with God: a Theodicy, London: Trübner & Co., page 108

    […] Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire had already “refuted,” in 1817 and again in 1824, a black origin for the Egyptian civilization, […]. They evoked the “pithecomorphism,” or resemblance to apes, of the “black race,” and said moreover that the skulls of Egyptian mummies were similar to those of Europeans.

    2017, Chris Herzfeld, “Skeletons, Skins, and Skulls: Apes in the Age of Colonial Expansion and Natural History Collections”, in Kevin Frey, transl., The Great Apes: A Short History, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 50

Origin

From pitheco- + -morphism.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pithecomorphism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pithecomorphism

MLA

“pithecomorphism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pithecomorphism. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pithecomorphism,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pithecomorphism.

Source: pithecomorphism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.