TROGLODYTE
Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 11:13 pm
• troglodyte •
Pronunciation: trahg-lê-dayt
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A person who lives in a cave or building carved into a hillside. 2. A pongid (gorilla, orangutan, or chimpanzee). 3. A reclusive, anachronistic person who resists change.
Notes: This curious word has a limited immediate family, only the adjective troglodytic [trahg-lê-di-tik]. However, the first constituent, troglo-, may be combined with other Greek constituents to create new words like troglophile "an animal that enjoys dark caves"—but why not "cave-lover"? Hadn't you rather be a troglophile than a spelunker? And, if troglophile, why not troglophobe "someone who fears spelunking."
In Play: First, people do dig out cozy homes in hillsides and live in them (see the illustration from France). However, you probably never thought of chimpanzees as troglodytes; yet, their scientific name is pan troglodytes—perhaps from the days when we thought they lived in caves. But today the word is used most widely in the third sense: "Nothing brings the troglodytes out of the woodwork like the smell of change." I suppose your attitude toward change will determine whether you identify with the troglodytes or the change-makers.
Word History: Let us see if we can root out the origin of today's Good Word. It was kidnapped pretty much as is from Greek troglodytes "an animal that crawls into holes" (mice, foxes, snakes) then, later "caveman". In Greek the word was a compound from trogle "gnawed hole" (from trogein "to gnaw") + dytes "one who enters." ("Cave" in Greek was spelunx, from which we derive spelunker.) But troglodytes to the Greeks were Caucasian or Middle Eastern peoples who carved their homes in rocks or lived in decorated caves. Aristotle, however, referred to these peoples as midgets who fought wars with cranes and Aristotle's opinion has always carried a lot of weight.
Pronunciation: trahg-lê-dayt
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A person who lives in a cave or building carved into a hillside. 2. A pongid (gorilla, orangutan, or chimpanzee). 3. A reclusive, anachronistic person who resists change.
Notes: This curious word has a limited immediate family, only the adjective troglodytic [trahg-lê-di-tik]. However, the first constituent, troglo-, may be combined with other Greek constituents to create new words like troglophile "an animal that enjoys dark caves"—but why not "cave-lover"? Hadn't you rather be a troglophile than a spelunker? And, if troglophile, why not troglophobe "someone who fears spelunking."
In Play: First, people do dig out cozy homes in hillsides and live in them (see the illustration from France). However, you probably never thought of chimpanzees as troglodytes; yet, their scientific name is pan troglodytes—perhaps from the days when we thought they lived in caves. But today the word is used most widely in the third sense: "Nothing brings the troglodytes out of the woodwork like the smell of change." I suppose your attitude toward change will determine whether you identify with the troglodytes or the change-makers.
Word History: Let us see if we can root out the origin of today's Good Word. It was kidnapped pretty much as is from Greek troglodytes "an animal that crawls into holes" (mice, foxes, snakes) then, later "caveman". In Greek the word was a compound from trogle "gnawed hole" (from trogein "to gnaw") + dytes "one who enters." ("Cave" in Greek was spelunx, from which we derive spelunker.) But troglodytes to the Greeks were Caucasian or Middle Eastern peoples who carved their homes in rocks or lived in decorated caves. Aristotle, however, referred to these peoples as midgets who fought wars with cranes and Aristotle's opinion has always carried a lot of weight.