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Atavistic

adj

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.

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

  2. 2
    Of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.

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

  3. 3
    Relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.
Adjective
  1. 1
    characteristic of an atavist wordnet

Etymology

From atavism + -istic, from French atavisme, from Latin atavus (“ancestor”), from at + avus (“grandfather”).

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