Etymology From neo- + -lithic. Coined by English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.
1
A person who lived during the New Stone Age.
For the Neolithics, the stone was flint, and it's still impressive to see what they were able to achieve with it.2011, Seán Lang, European History For Dummies, page 27:
With this thought in his mind, Challenger gave a contemptuous and condescending consent to the proposal that he should grace with his presence a proceeding which was, in his opinion, more fitted to the stone cabin of a neolithic savage than to the serious attention of one who represented the accumulated culture and wisdom of the human race.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
What am I supposed to do with this neolithic piece of machinery?
Derived terms
aneolithic
Neolithic
adj
Etymology From neo- + -lithic. Coined by English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system.
1
Of or relating to the New Stone Age.
Tokens are first identified at around the same time as the local peoples changed from a life based on hunting and gathering to one based on agriculture. The tokens, as Schmandt-Besserat says, "were part and parcel of the Neolithic phenomenon; that is, the so-called agricultural revolution." (Before Writing 41).2001, Duncan J. Melville, “Tokens: the origin of mathematics”, in Mesopotamian Mathematics, archived from the original on 06 Feb 2007:
... I was fascinated by a pair of stories about a Neolithic girl who wrote the first letter, and invented the first alphabet.2013 September 14, Jane Shilling, “The Golden Thread: the Story of Writing, by Ewan Clayton, review [print edition: Illuminating language]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R28: