atavism
Americannoun
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Biology.
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the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations.
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an individual embodying such a reversion.
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reversion to an earlier type; throwback.
noun
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the recurrence in a plant or animal of certain primitive characteristics that were present in an ancestor but have not occurred in intermediate generations
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reversion to a former or more primitive type
Other Word Forms
- atavic adjective
- atavist noun
Etymology
Origin of atavism
First recorded in 1825–35; from Latin atav(us) “great-great-great grandfather; remote ancestor, forefather” ( at-, akin to atta familiar name for a grandfather, “grampa” + avus “grandfather, ancestor”) + -ism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Millet plays with the title and with the idea of atavism, in which an ancient trait asserts itself by skipping forward a few generations to suddenly appear in the gene pool.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2025
His atavism came with the weekend’s most polish.
From Slate • May 30, 2023
Enright understands adulthood as a kind of aberration that befalls families: siblings must grow up, but their maturity is oddly irrelevant to the atavism of the family unit.
From The New Yorker • May 18, 2015
Hopkins is an enduring atavism, a one-man history lesson in the boxer’s craft.
From New York Times • Oct. 31, 2014
As if it came from an atavism deeper than fear, I used to add “brother” silently to boys’ names.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
