atavistic
English
WOTD – 3 November 2009
Etymology
From atavism + -istic, from French atavisme, from Latin atavus (“ancestor”), from at + avus (“grandfather”).
Pronunciation
- (UK, US) IPA(key): /æt.əˈvɪs.tɪk/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪstɪk
Adjective
atavistic (comparative more atavistic, superlative most atavistic)
- (biology) Of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
- 1889, U.S. Office of Experiment Stations, Experiment Station Record
- Although the heterozygote gives it an atavistic appearance, the gene is not atavistic.
- 1946, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Human genetics:
- Thus the gene which produced atavistic digits in the vigorous heterozygous pentadactyl condition is a lethal monster in the homozygous condition.
- 2006, Roger E Stevenson, Judith G Hall, Human malformations and related anomalies
- Reactivation of a dormant atavistic gene could account for the abnormal costocoracoid ligament in humans.
- 1889, U.S. Office of Experiment Stations, Experiment Station Record
- Of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
- 1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, Grove Press, published 1961:
- They made me feel that I was alive in the nineteenth century, a sort of atavistic remnant, a romantic shred […]
- 1979, Norman Spinrad, A world between:
- The true perversion took place only in the privacy of her mind — the way she imagined an atavistic macho atop her when engaged in a mandatory contribution to the fetus-banks with some cretinous inept breeder…
- 2000, Steven Heller, Marshall Arisman, The education of an illustrator
- Because I am atavistic enough to believe that drawing is the basic language of the illustrator, even as words comprise the basic language of the writer…
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- Relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.
Synonyms
- atavistical
Derived terms
- atavistically
Related terms
- atavism
- atavist
Translations
biology: of the recurrence of a trait after an absence of generations
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of a throwback
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of the return of earlier, more primitive behavior
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