missing link
1
7.8
- noun
- /ˈmɪsɪŋ lɪŋk/
- Archaic
:
eslabón perdido
- Evidence of man's primitive ancestry, the missing link!
Examples
-
He sets up his own evolutionary missing link.
Blog text (18) -
There is the missing link in your logic, jnslater.
Blog text (9) -
That could be the missing link.
-
As one wag put it, we've finally discovered the missing link between the apes and civilized humans: it's us!
Academic text (1991) -
But what of that piece of the puzzle that's missing, that vacant place, that empty spot, that blank page, that hollow shell, that void in our knowledge of the evolutionary chain, that missing link!
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Because of the small claws on the middle of the wings of their young, hoatzins were viewed by nineteenth-century anatomists as a living missing link between the ancient feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx and modern birds.
Academic text (1992) -
Scientists are still searching for the missing link that connects ancient apes to modern humans.
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The discovery of a missing link fossil would greatly enhance our understanding of human evolution.
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Many believe that finding a missing link will help explain how humans evolved from their primate ancestors.
Synonyms
110
8.4
An incomplete fossil skeleton of an early human ancestor found in Ethiopia in 1974
9
9.9
An early human ancestor known from fossils found in Africa
An early human with features between apes and people today
An extinct early human relative with ape features
A human ancestor from before modern humans
An extinct early human ancestor from Africa that lived long ago
A large extinct ape that lived in Greece and Turkey
An extinct early primate from Egypt that lived before modern apes
An extinct early primate believed to be an ancestor of apes and humans
An extinct ape from millions of years ago that may be an ancestor of modern apes and humans
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'missing' (not present) and 'link' (a connection), so its meaning as an absent or necessary connection is directly derivable from the parts. This compositional interpretation is cross-linguistically common and thus a B1 learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun missing link comes from an old image of evolution: people pictured life as a chain and looked for one animal that joined apes to humans, a link that was 'missing'. That's why it was used for a fossil thought to be the 'bridge' between apes and humans.