"demihuman" meaning in English

See demihuman in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: demihumans [plural]
Etymology: demi- + human Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|demi|human}} demi- + human Head templates: {{en-noun}} demihuman (plural demihumans)
  1. (fantasy, mythology) A member of a human-like race; in fantasy, sometimes distinguished from the more bestial humanoid races. Categories (topical): Fantasy, Mythology

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for demihuman meaning in English (4.1kB)

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "demi",
        "3": "human"
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      "expansion": "demi- + human",
      "name": "prefix"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "demi- + human",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "demihumans",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "demihuman (plural demihumans)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with demi-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Fantasy",
          "orig": "en:Fantasy",
          "parents": [
            "Fiction",
            "Speculative fiction",
            "Artistic works",
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        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mythology",
          "orig": "en:Mythology",
          "parents": [
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            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1986, BBC Wildlife, volumes 4-5, page 393",
          "text": "No wonder Columbus was dubious. Though perfectly charming, in a Droopy-esque way. it would take a lot of imagination (or desperation) to convert this into a demihuman sex siren.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Roger E. Moore, Dragon Magazine, TSR",
          "text": "Halflings look upon other demihuman and humanoid races as stock for the stew pot.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, David Zeb Cook, Jean Rabe, Warren Spector, Steven E. Schend, Dungeon master guide for the AD&D game, TSR",
          "text": "In the AD&D game, humans are more motivated by ambition and the desire for power than the demihuman races are. Thus, humans advance further and more quickly. Demihumans can attain significant levels in certain classes, but they do not ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Isla: A Journal of Micronesian Studies",
          "text": "In one version we learn that the people who built Nan Madol settled at the site because they were \"constantly afraid of the people of the center of Pohnpei,\" both the various demihuman, cannibalistic creatures and \"real people\" who resided ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Gary Westfahl, George Edgar Slusser, No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy",
          "text": "... fact from the moment he first lays eyes on the demihuman M'ling, before he has any notion of Moreau or his surgical feats. \"I had never beheld such a repulsive and extraordinary face before, and yet — if the contradiction is credible — I ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, S. K. Robisch, Wolves and the Wolf Myth in American Literature, University of Nevada Press, page 207",
          "text": "We can watch this happen, on page and screen, in werewolves. We can safely say that the werewolf is a widespread figure, not exclusive to European mythology. But it is also not a generic manifestation of the global demihuman.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Brian Stableford, The Return of the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas, Wildside Press LLC, page 89",
          "text": "features of a thousand faces upon that awful head: human faces, demihuman, reptilian, serpentine, batrachian, vulpine. […]and many others for which I have no ready descriptive terms.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Marc Mattaliano, The Demihuman Archives, Xlibris Corporation, page 120",
          "text": "Demihumans, like . . . yourself . . . the vampires . . . orcs, dwarves, trolls, demons, pixies, all of them have a stake in the fate of humanity . . .”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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      "glosses": [
        "A member of a human-like race; in fantasy, sometimes distinguished from the more bestial humanoid races."
      ],
      "id": "en-demihuman-en-noun-V02cUA5c",
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          "mythology",
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy, mythology) A member of a human-like race; in fantasy, sometimes distinguished from the more bestial humanoid races."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fantasy",
        "human-sciences",
        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
        "philosophy",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "demihuman"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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        "2": "demi",
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      "name": "prefix"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "demi- + human",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "demihumans",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "demihuman (plural demihumans)",
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        {
          "ref": "1986, BBC Wildlife, volumes 4-5, page 393",
          "text": "No wonder Columbus was dubious. Though perfectly charming, in a Droopy-esque way. it would take a lot of imagination (or desperation) to convert this into a demihuman sex siren.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1991, Roger E. Moore, Dragon Magazine, TSR",
          "text": "Halflings look upon other demihuman and humanoid races as stock for the stew pot.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, David Zeb Cook, Jean Rabe, Warren Spector, Steven E. Schend, Dungeon master guide for the AD&D game, TSR",
          "text": "In the AD&D game, humans are more motivated by ambition and the desire for power than the demihuman races are. Thus, humans advance further and more quickly. Demihumans can attain significant levels in certain classes, but they do not ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Isla: A Journal of Micronesian Studies",
          "text": "In one version we learn that the people who built Nan Madol settled at the site because they were \"constantly afraid of the people of the center of Pohnpei,\" both the various demihuman, cannibalistic creatures and \"real people\" who resided ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Gary Westfahl, George Edgar Slusser, No Cure for the Future: Disease and Medicine in Science Fiction and Fantasy",
          "text": "... fact from the moment he first lays eyes on the demihuman M'ling, before he has any notion of Moreau or his surgical feats. \"I had never beheld such a repulsive and extraordinary face before, and yet — if the contradiction is credible — I ...",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, S. K. Robisch, Wolves and the Wolf Myth in American Literature, University of Nevada Press, page 207",
          "text": "We can watch this happen, on page and screen, in werewolves. We can safely say that the werewolf is a widespread figure, not exclusive to European mythology. But it is also not a generic manifestation of the global demihuman.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Brian Stableford, The Return of the Djinn and Other Black Melodramas, Wildside Press LLC, page 89",
          "text": "features of a thousand faces upon that awful head: human faces, demihuman, reptilian, serpentine, batrachian, vulpine. […]and many others for which I have no ready descriptive terms.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Marc Mattaliano, The Demihuman Archives, Xlibris Corporation, page 120",
          "text": "Demihumans, like . . . yourself . . . the vampires . . . orcs, dwarves, trolls, demons, pixies, all of them have a stake in the fate of humanity . . .”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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        "A member of a human-like race; in fantasy, sometimes distinguished from the more bestial humanoid races."
      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(fantasy, mythology) A member of a human-like race; in fantasy, sometimes distinguished from the more bestial humanoid races."
      ],
      "topics": [
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        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "demihuman"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.