troglodytic

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   relating to people or animals that live in caves

   Archaeologists found traces of a troglodytic settlement in the limestone cliffs.

2. 2
   adj

   resembling a stereotypical cave dweller in being brutish, primitive, or socially backward

   Utterson found Hyde's manner so strange that he called it almost troglodytic.

From Latin troglodyticus, from Greek troglodytikos, based on troglodytes, 'one who enters or inhabits holes,' from trogle, 'hole,' + dyein, 'to enter.' The figurative sense applies the stereotype of a cave dweller to crude or backward conduct.

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