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''troglodytic'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260715204347-00-⌔
troglodytic - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Adjective
troglodytic (comparative more troglodytic, superlative most troglodytic)
- Of or pertaining to troglodytes, or dwellers in caves.
- ✤ Synonym: troglodytish
- ✤ Foremost of all, of course, were the sight of the fiery caves and the certainty that some troglodytic race inhabited them.1
- Like or befitting a troglodyte; brutish, backwards, etc.
- ✤ ‘There is something more, if I could find a name for it. God bless me, the man seems hardly human! Something troglodytic, shall we say? or can it be the old story of Dr. Fell? or is it the mere radiance of a foul soul that thus transpires through, and transfigures, its clay continent? The last, I think; for O my poor old Harry Jekyll, if ever I read Satan’s signature upon a face, it is on that of your new friend.’2
- ✤ You have my thanks for not closing debate in Community Voices, so that the late but thoughtful and intelligent contributions to a controversy isn’t squelched. I’ve found this usually means clawing one’s way through mounds of troglodytic gay male misogyny and an occasional off-the-wall lesbian interpretation of gay male sexuality, but it’s worth it.3
Etymology
From Latin troglodyticus, Ancient Greek τρωγλοδυτικός (trōglodutikós, “of cave-/hole-dwellers”) from τρωγλοδύτης (trōglodútēs, “cave-/hole-dweller”) from τρώγλη (trṓglē, “hole”) + δύω (dúō, “enter, go into”), equivalent to troglodyte + -ic.
Printed 2026-07-15.
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Link to original Footnotes
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC: ↩
1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Search for Mr. Hyde”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 25–26: ↩
1980 December 27, Ray Olson, “Spreading The Word”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 23, page 5: ↩
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