| 释义 |
pre-man, n. and a.
A. n. [pre- B. 1] (Stressed ˈpre-man.) A hominid or man-like creature that lived before the appearance of man, Homo erectus and H. sapiens.
B. adj. [pre- B. 2.] (Stressed pre-ˈman.) Occurring or belonging to the time before the appearance of man.
1921H. G. Wells Short Stories (1927) 687 Men, our ancestors, had their first glimpse of the pre-men of the wilderness. 1947Sci. Illustr. Sept. 60/1 Desert so devoid of life that it takes the visitor back to pre-man time on earth. 1953J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action vi. 136 We can distinguish..three stages in the physical evolution of man. First, the deployment of the pre-men. 1971J. Z. Young Introd. Study Man xxxiii. 457 Up to the stage that may be called pre-man (Australopithecus) the changes were gradual. 1977Time 7 Nov. 48/1 Leakey has found more and better pre-man and early man fossils than any other anthropologist. |