科學：那種早期人類
最直接的一支：指著那張圖本身，沒有任何評價。名詞指人，形容詞指屬於他們的東西。這支通常大寫。
noun · B2
A member of an early kind of human, Homo neanderthalensis, who lived a very long time ago and no longer exists.
尼安德塔人
核心畫面
Hold one picture in your head: the figure in the museum case. A человек-like person, heavy-browed, short and broad, standing next to a modern human — an early kind of human who really lived, and who died out. That figure is the whole word. Point at it in a science room and you get the plain meaning: a Neanderthal, Neanderthal bones, Neanderthal DNA. Point at someone across a room and you are no longer talking about biology; you are lending them the figure. If you mean their body and manners, you are saying they act like that heavy, rough, silent shape. If you mean their opinions, you are saying their thinking still lives back there, in a world that ended long ago. Nothing about the figure changes. Only who you aim it at.
可以想成腦中只有一張圖：博物館玻璃櫃裡那個身影。眉骨很粗、身材矮壯，站在現代人旁邊——那是真的存在過、後來滅絕的一種…更多收起
可以想成腦中只有一張圖：博物館玻璃櫃裡那個身影。眉骨很粗、身材矮壯，站在現代人旁邊——那是真的存在過、後來滅絕的一種早期人類。整個字就是這張圖。在科學的場合指著它，意思很單純：a Neanderthal、Neanderthal bones、Neanderthal DNA。但如果你隔著房間指著某個人，你講的就不是生物學了，而是把那張圖借給他。你如果指的是他的身體和舉止，就是在說他像那個又壯又粗、不太說話的身影。你如果指的是他的想法，就是在說他的腦袋還留在那個早就結束的世界裡。圖片本身從來沒變，變的只是你把它扣在誰身上。From the word’s history
From obsolete German Neanderthal (now Neandertal), the name of a valley near Düsseldorf where the first specimen was found in 1856; the valley had been renamed in 1850 after the theologian and hymn writer Joachim Neander (1650–1680). So the word is, literally, "the one from Neander's valley".
來自德文舊拼法 Neanderthal（今作 Neandertal），是杜塞道夫附近一座山谷的名字（德文 Tal「谷」舊寫作 Thal）。1856 年第一具化石就在那裡出土。這座山谷在 1850 年改名，紀念德國神學家與讚美詩作者 Joachim Neander（1650–1680）。所以這個字字面上就是「Neander 谷來的那一位」。也因為是地名來的，科學用法通常保留大寫。
Wiktionary entry "Neanderthal" (packet evidence source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1792220112)
Three branches
罵人：腦袋停在過去
把那張圖扣在別人的「想法」上。重點在時間：那個身影屬於一個早就結束的世界，所以說某人是 neanderthal，等於說他的觀念還留在那裡、不肯跟著走。這是概念上的比喻，不是說他真的是那種人。
noun · C1
An insulting name for someone whose ideas are very old-fashioned and who is against any kind of change.
老古板；頑固守舊的人
罵人：舉止像穴居人
同樣把那張圖扣在別人身上，但重點不在時間，而在「粗」：塊頭、吃相、音量、教養。這支比上一支更難聽，因為它同時碰到外表和腦袋。
noun · C1
An insulting name for a man seen as big, rough, unattractive and not clever; more widely, for anyone behaving in a rough, uncivilised way.
粗魯的野蠻人（罵人用）