## Defaultdict magic from collections import defaultdict defaultobj = lambda: type('defaultobj', (defaultdict,), { '__getattr__': lambda self, x: self.__getitem__(x), '__setattr__': lambda self, x, v: self.__setitem__(x, v) })(defaultobj) names = defaultobj() names.mammalia.primates.homo['H. Sapiens'] = 'Human being' print(names)