Kallikak

American  

[kal-i-kak] / ˈkæl ɪˌkæk /

noun

1. the fictitious name of an actual family that was the focus of a sociological study: one branch of feeble-minded descendants were mostly social degenerates, while another branch with descendants of normal intelligence were mostly successful.

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Etymology

Origin of Kallikak

< Greek kalli- calli- + kak- ( see caco-)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Kallikak

Both clans were descendants of Martin Kallikak, a soldier in the Revolution.

From Time Magazine Archive

The studies of the Edwards family on one hand and the so-called Kallikak family on the other, point to the same conclusion.

From How to Teach by George Drayton Strayer

Won't you please expunge that unfortunate fifteen minutes at the porte-cochere last June, and remember instead the fifteen hours I spent reading the Kallikak Family?

From Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

Another family called the Kallikak family, which has been made the subject of investigation, is a still better example of heredity.

From Society Its Origin and Development by Henry Kalloch Rowe

It happened that the ancestor of the Kallikak family, after he had sown his wild oats, married well and had about five hundred descendants.

From Society Its Origin and Development by Henry Kalloch Rowe

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