alalus
Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. (noun) Haeckel's hypothetical 'ape-man,' a conjectured genus of mammals, based upon the Pithecanthropus, or primitive speechless man, supposed to have made his appearance toward the close of the Tertiary epoch, in what is usually called the human form, but destitute of the power of framing and using speech, as well as of the capacities accompanying that faculty.
‘Alalus’ comes from a Greek word meaning ‘speechless.’ Sometimes capitalized.
Examples
“The tongue was low and liquid and entirely beautiful and enchanting, and she spoke, too, much with her eyes and with her graceful hands, as did her companions, for the tribe of Nu was not far removed from those earlier peoples, descended from the alalus who were speechless, and who preceded those who spoke, by signs.”
“Bradley had noted something of the obvious indications of a gradual evolution from ape to spearman as exemplified by the several overlapping races of Alalus, club-men and hatchet-men that formed the connecting links between the two extremes with which he, had come in contact.”
“The emotions of the Alalus were divided into two main classes - those of pain and those of pleasure, and to express his pain or pleasure he uttered pain sounds or pleasure sounds.”
Hudson Maxim, The science of poetry and the philosophy of language
