atavism

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“
But fortunately such instances are as yet very rare After this discussion it would be bold indeed to give instances of seed-atavism, and I believe that it will be better to refrain wholly from doing so Many instances of so-called atavism are of purely morphologic nature.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes.
  2. noun An individual or a part that exhibits atavism. Also called throwback.
  3. noun The return of a trait or recurrence of previous behavior after a period of absence.

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Examples (50)

  • All the atavism, all the spectral repetition of the thoughts and ideas of the past that can lie dormant in the mind of the individual, leaped to the reinforcement of the harrowing religious impressions which came to me from without. —  Recollections Of My Childhood And Youth
  • My mother's opinion was that this was a very strong case of atavism, and that the mysterious ancestor had through the ages cropped out again in me. —  Memoirs
  • Bohr was an atavism--they caught him trying to 'take over' there, and banished him. —  Man of Many Minds
  • It seems indeed an atavism, a return to modes of feeling that created the monuments of other ages, of barbarous and forgotten times. —  Musical Portraits Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers
  • She is an atavism, a survival of the age of violence, a Palćolithic squaw in petticoats. —  Certain Personal Matters
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French atavisme, from Latin atavus, ancestor : atta, father + avus, grandfather; see awo- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French atavisme, from Latin atavus, a great-grandfather's grandfather, an ancestor (from at-, an element of undetermined origin, + avus, a grandfather), + -ism.
 

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/ˈætəvɪzm/
by American Heritage

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