Piltdown man

noun

Pilt·​down man ˈpilt-ˌdau̇n- 

: a supposedly very early hominid erroneously reconstructed in the early 1900s from what was later determined to be human skull fragments and an orangutan lower jaw planted by a hoaxer

Word History

Etymology

Piltdown, East Sussex, England

First Known Use

1913, in the meaning defined above