Capoid, adjective and & noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Cape + English adjective- and noun-forming suffix -oid having the form or nature of, resembling (OED).
A. adjective Of or belonging to a purportedly distinct racial group comprising the Khoikhoi, Koranna, San, and the Sandawe of Tanzania. See also Khoisanoid (Khoisan).
Note:
The Capoid group is believed by some to be one of the major groups into which Homo sapiens may be divided.
1963 C.S. Coon Origin of Races 3I am using a conservative and tentative classification of the living peoples of the world into five basically geographical groups: The Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoid, Congoid, and Capoid.
1983 D. Hughes et al. Complete Bk of S. Afr. Wine 16Bands of Hottentots (Xhoisan, or Capoid, people), the only indigenous population here..had no settled community or agriculture, living meagrely off shellfish and fruit.
1991 J. Coulter in Weekend Post 4 May (Leisure) 3These unique African people (sc. the San) are the descendants of the ancient Capoid or Khoisanoid division of man.
B. noun Always in pl. : A collective name for members of this group. See also Khoisan sense 1.
1963 C.S. Coon Origin of Races 636The Capoids, named by Broom after the Cape of Good Hope, constitute one of the five subspecies of modern man. They include the living Bushmen, the living Hottentots and that branch of the Hottentots known as the Korana, a few beachcombing remnants of an earlier coastal Bushman population known as Strandlopers, and certain relict populations in Tanganyika and possibly farther north.
1971 P.V. Tobias in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. III. 95The Capoids comprise the Bushman and, in a mixed state, the Hottentots, Korana and Sandawe of Tanganyika. Thus the term covers the congeries of people commonly grouped as the Khoisanoid or Khoisaniform race or complex of races. The Capoids or Khoisanoids were formerly regarded as one of the five major subdivisions of living mankind. Subsequently genetical research indicated that they had many affinities with the Negroid peoples of Africa.
Of or belonging to a purportedly distinct racial group comprising the Khoikhoi, Koranna, San, and the Sandawe of Tanzania.
Always in pl. :A collective name for members of this group.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19631991