1. A prehistoric cave dweller or a primitive race of people who lived in caves, dens, or holes: Figuratively, a troglodyte is someone who lives in degradation or has a brutal and uncivilized nature.
2. A person living in seclusion or someone who is considered to be reclusive, reactionary, and out of date: Usually a troglodyte is someone who is unacquainted with what is going on in the rest of the world.

Some computer programmers are thought of as being troglodytes because they work alone with their machines and have little contact with other people.

The term troglodyte doesn't necessarily apply just to prehistoric cave dwellers. It also describes someone who lives in a dingy domicile or people who are so socially inept or culturally deprived that they seem to have just emerged from a subterranean cavity into the "blinding light of civilization" or those whose thinking or behavior is considered to be uncivilized and backward.

3. Creatures that live underground: Moles, worms, ants, etc. are considered to be troglodytes because they exist in the terra firma or soil.
4. Etymology: from Greek trogle, "hole" + dyein, "get into". © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

1. A genus of small passerine (perching) birds: Members of the wren family of birds are called Nannus troglodytes because they often live in holes.
2. Etymology: the genus name (Greek troglodytai, from trogle, "a hole" (properly "a hole formed by gnawing" and dyein, "to enter") refers to the tendency of these wrens to enter small crevices and similar areas as they look for food.

1. House wren or common American wren that nests around houses: The Troglodytes aedon is a term that includes a group of small active brown birds of the northern hemisphere which have short upright tails, feed on insects, and often go into small crevices and similar areas where they look for food.