Atavistic

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /æt.əˈvɪs.tɪk/

Origin

From atavism + -istic, from French atavisme, from Latin atavus ("ancestor"), from at + avus ("grandfather").

Full definition of atavistic

Adjective

1. (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 RecordAlthough the heterozygote gives it an atavistic appearance, the gene is not atavistic.
• 1946, Reginald Ruggles Gates, Human geneticsThus 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 anomaliesReactivation of a dormant atavistic gene could account for the abnormal costocoracoid ligament in humans.
2. of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
• 1934, Henry Miller, Tropic of CancerThey made me feel that I was alive in the nineteenth century, a sort of atavistic remnant, a romantic shred…
• 1979, Norman Spinrad, A world betweenThe 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 illustratorBecause 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…
3. relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.

Derived terms

• atavistically

Related terms

• atavism
• atavist