Hominiform

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A category of living beings that closely resemble humans in traits
2. Having a shape or structure that is closely similar to that of a human being
3. Displaying physical characteristics or features that are like those found in humans

Etymology: Medieval scholars and natural historians had no word for the group of creatures that stand between apes and modern people, so "hominiform" was assembled from Latin parts: "homo", meaning "human being", and "forma", meaning "shape" or "form". The result describes anything with a human-like shape. Its near-synonym "hominid" follows a different route, and that route runs through a word for a biological family. "Hominid" was borrowed from the scientific Latin name of the family Hominidae, which is built on "Homo", the genus that includes modern humans. That Latin genus name is itself a Latin word for "man", and the family name carries the common scientific ending "-idae", which marks a taxonomic family. English took the form directly from this scientific Latin, so "hominid" is a technical borrowing rather than an older everyday term. "Hominiform" is therefore a loose, descriptive coinage in the same family of words. Where "hominid" names a formal biological grouping, "hominiform" simply means "shaped like a human", and it can describe creatures, figures or objects whether or not they belong to that grouping.