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.
    • 2025 September 27, Julia Jacobo, “Million-year-old skull could rewrite timeline of human origin, researchers say”, in ABC News[1]:
      "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.

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