atavistic

Definitions

1. Of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
2. Atavistic, ancestral.
3. Of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
4. Relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.

Equivalents

10 more languages

Catalàatàvic

Ελληνικάαταβιστικός

Suomialkukantainenatavistinentakautuva

Italianoatavico

한국어격세 유전적인

Nederlandsatavistisch

Polskiatawistyczny

Portuguêsatávicoatavístico

Românăatavic

Русскийатавистический

Examples

“Although the heterozygote gives it an atavistic appearance, the gene is not atavistic.”

“Thus the gene which produced atavistic digits in the vigorous heterozygous pentadactyl condition is a lethal monster in the homozygous condition.”

“Reactivation of a dormant atavistic gene could account for the abnormal costocoracoid ligament in humans.”

“They made me feel⟳ that I was alive in the nineteenth century, a sort⟳ of atavistic remnant, a romantic shred […]”

“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…”

“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…”

CEFR level