Is there a word that means something like “the organisms on the branch of the evolutionary tree between the chimp-human common ancestor and chimps”? In other words, a chimp equivalent of “hominid”? I thought maybe “panid,” but a google search yielded only pages in languages other than English. I’m just curious, and can understand if there isn’t (since hominid evolution is obviously a bigger deal to most humans than chimp evolution).
Pongid. This term is used for the great apes in general: chimps, gorillas and orangutans. I don’t think there’s a term for chimps specifically.
Hmm. It looks like the actual answer might be “hominid”. By some definitions at least, hominid (and Hominidae) includes all of the great apes, from the common ancestor of orangutans, chimps, humans, and gorillas up through the modern great apes (including us).
Thanks for the answer, though; I think it’s as close to what I wanted as I’m going to find 
The -id ending is an Anglicization of the “scientific Latin” ending -idae, which effectively says “This is an animal family characterized by the genus the ending is attached to.” Humans are the surviving species of the family Hominidae, hence early humans are hominids. According to traditional classifications, the three great apes are members of the family Pongidae (founded from Pongo pygmaeus, the orangutan), and hence gorillas, chimps, and orangutans are pongids.
The related form for a subfamily is -ine, Anglicized from -inae. (It’s also the Anglicization for the “tribe” – the subdivision of a subfamily with a plethora of genera and hence requiring an intermediate breakdown, for which the Latinate ending is -ini.) So it would probably be accurate to refer to chimps and their immediate ancestors as “panines.” (I’d pronounce that as /-eenz/ rhyming with means rather than /-Inz/ rhyming with mines.)
Orangutans, great apes? Don’t get me wrong I think they are certainnly good apes, but great?
Orangutans are the greatest of apes. The whole family is named after them.
Ook.
I stand corrected; that is as close to what I wanted as I’m likely to find, since it seems to actually be exactly what I wanted. Thank you very much.
What is the proper way to refer to members of the genus Homo? Homines? Or is there a specific Anglicized ending for genus? I really should know these things, but I always stayed down on the molecular end of biology in college
Human?
Really, the best way is a “members of the genus Homo.” “Homine” implies a higher level taxon such as subfamily or tribe (e.g. here, one of several possible classifications of humans/apes)
Note, though, as Colibri’s link demonsrates, there is some disagreement with your position about the exact classification of humans and “apes”. Traditionally, the classification you give above was accepted by everyone, but genetic and geographical evidence makes it neary impossible to substantiate the existence of a Pongid family including orangutans, chimps, and gorillas but excluding humans. Humans and gorillas are closer to each other, genetically, than the gorilla is to the orangutan, and humans and chimpanzees are closer still. So the word “apes”, while still useful in everyday language to denote advanced nonhuman primates, is meaningless taxonomically unless humans are also included.
Homies 