Tarzanist

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An anthropologist who depicts early human evolution in terms of aggressive male hunters and passive baby-carrying women.

    "The Tarzanists suggest that bipedalism enabled this ape to race after game while carrying weapons — in the first instance, presumably pebbles."

Adjective
  1. 1
    In the style of, or exhibiting, Tarzanism.

    "But if he finds a niche in the Hardy theory, he surely throws a pretty hefty wrench into the Tarzanist works. If the hominid became bipedal in order to run after his prey, where did this bipedal plant-eater come from?"

Example

More examples

"But if he finds a niche in the Hardy theory, he surely throws a pretty hefty wrench into the Tarzanist works. If the hominid became bipedal in order to run after his prey, where did this bipedal plant-eater come from?"

Etymology

From Tarzan + -ist.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.