atavistic
adjective
of, relating to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.
atavistically
-
a word derived from
atavistic.
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.
There is no noble savagery for which to atavistically pine, any more than there is some ignoble savagery from which we escaped.”
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2015
Angela Merkel — and we’re in luck because the celebrities in question happen to be atavistically good with their hands.
From New York Times ● May 1, 2015
Even Mexico, a tenth of whose citizens live abroad and whose economy is more open than that of any other country its size, remains atavistically touchy about outsiders.
From Economist ● Apr. 4, 2013
I tell Kunzru I fund this passage fascinating because, in it, both parties are ostensibly secular, but as soon as rearing a child gets serious, they revert atavistically to Sikh and Jew.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2011
He falls desperately in love with Greenleaf's False Self and it is the revelation of the latter's dilapidated True Self that leads to the atavistically bloody scene in the boat.
From Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema by Samuel Vaknin
