Neanderthal

adjectivenounattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//niːˈæn.dəˌtɑːl//
United States//niˈæn.dɚˌθɑl//
United States//niˈæn.dɚ.θəl//
United States//niˈæn.dɚˌtɑl//

Of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis.

adjective

1
Of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis.
The capacity of the Neanderthal skull was 10% larger than that of modern humans.
[…]In short, many assessments conclude that East Asians have more Neanderthal ancestry than Europeans, who have more Neanderthal ancestry than people in the Middle East.
2
Old-fashioned, opposed to change.
3
Primitive, savage or uncivilized.
4
Of or pertaining to the Neander Valley in Germany.

Etymology

From obsolete German Neanderthal, now spelled Neandertal, the name of a valley (German Tal, older also spelled Thal) near Düsseldorf where the first Neanderthal was discovered in 1856. A hollow near the valley was known as Neanderhöhle (“Neander Hollow”) and Neandershöhle (“Neander’s Hollow”) in the early 19th century, and the valley had been renamed to Neanderthal in 1850, in honour of the German Calvinist theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650–1680). Before, the valley was known as das Gesteins (literally “The Rocks [sg.]”) and Hundsklipp (literally “Dog Cliff”). The name of Joachim Neander is based on the Ancient Greek translation (νέος (néos) + ᾰ̓νήρ (ănḗr)) of his original surname Neumann (“Newman”). The pronunciation with the "th" sound (/θ/) is a spelling pronunciation; the original German word is pronounced with a "t" sound (/t/).

noun

1
A specimen of the now extinct species Homo neanderthalensis.
These injuries may reflect the rigors of hunting with the Neanderthals' limited repertoire of weapons; the Neanderthals never seem to have developed projectiles, so they would have to have gotten more or less on top of their prey in order to kill them.
2
A primitive, savage or uncivilized person.
3
A white person.

Forms

plural: Neanderthals

ne · Not.neal · To temper by heat.Neal · A surname from Irish [in turn originating as a patronymic]…

Neanderthal · Of or pertaining to Homo neanderthalensis.

near · Physically close.Near · A surname.nearby · Adjacent, near, close by.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.