ENGLISH
REFERENCE

featherless biped

idiom
Meaning

A human being.


Origin

disputed origin

From the dialogue The Statesman by Plato (427–347 B.C.E.): “λέγω δὴ δεῖν τότε εὐθὺς τὸ πεζὸν τῷ δίποδι πρὸς τὸ τετράπουν γένος διανεῖμαι, κατιδόντα δὲ τἀνθρώπινον ἔτι μόνῳ τῷ πτηνῷ συνειληχὸς τὴν δίποδα ἀγέλην πάλιν τῷ ψιλῷ καὶ τῷ πτεροφυεῖ τέμνειν, […] [I say, then, that we ought at that time to have divided walking animals immediately into biped and quadruped, then seeing that the human race falls into the same division with the feathered creatures and no others, we must again divide the biped class into featherless and feathered, […]]”.

Examples
SIMPLE

The philosopher famously defined a human as a featherless biped.

CONTEXTUAL

In his biology lecture, the professor jokingly referred to his students as featherless bipeds to illustrate an ancient definition.

COMPLEX

While the ancient thinker sought to categorize life with precision, his description of man as a mere featherless biped remains a curious relic of early logic.

Anchors to

Last updated April 17, 2026