ape-man vs primitive person

ape-man and primitive person both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ape-man	Yes	No	No	No
primitive person	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, primitive person is a hypernym of ape-man; that is, primitive person is a word with a broader meaning than ape-man:

ape-man: hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings
primitive person: a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization

Other hypernyms of ape-man include primitive.

ape-man (noun)	primitive person (noun)
hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings	a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization
a person assumed to have been raised by apes