noun
Used attributively with reference to an extinct hominid known from a fossil jaw found at West Kanam on L. S. B. Leakey's excavation, formerly thought to be of Middle Pleistocene date but later shown to be a Late Pleistocene fossil in a secondary deposit.
Formerly named Homo kanamensis.
Origin
1930s; earliest use found in Journal African Society. From Kanam (Luo Kanam, lit. ‘place by the lake’), the name of a locality in Kenya, on the south shore of the Kavirondo gulf of Lake Victoria, where the fossil was found in 1932.
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips