Tarzan cultural definition

A character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in the early twentieth century. Tarzan, born to aristocratic parents but orphaned in Africa, is raised by apes, who teach him to speak their language.

• The adventures of Tarzan have been chronicled in countless books, comic strips, animated cartoons, radio and television series, and motion pictures.
• By extension, a “Tarzan” is a macho male, figuratively thumping his chest to get attention.

A character in popular novels by the twentieth-century American author Edgar Rice Burroughs. (See under “Mythology and Folklore.”)