Kallikak

[ kal-i-kak ]

noun

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.

Origin of Kallikak

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

Martin Kallikak was a youthful soldier in the Revolutionary War.
The Measurement of Intelligence | Lewis Madison Terman
If you are really hurt, I will read the Kallikak book; but I must tell you that you are working me to death.
Dear Enemy | Jean Webster
Kallikak family, results of environment rather than heredity shown by, 249.
Crime: Its Cause and Treatment | Clarence Darrow
The studies of the Edwards family on one hand and the so-called Kallikak family on the other, point to the same conclusion.
How to Teach | George Drayton Strayer and Naomi Norsworthy
A few years after returning from the war this same Martin Kallikak married a respectable girl of good family.
The Measurement of Intelligence | Lewis Madison Terman

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