atavism

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: at=a=vism

CIDE DICTIONARY

atavism, n. [L. atavus an ancestor, fr. avus a grandfather.].

•  The recurrence, or a tendency to a recurrence, of the original type of a species in the progeny of its varieties; resemblance to remote rather than to near ancestors; reversion to the original form.  [1913 Webster]

  "Now and then there occur cases of what physiologists call atavism, or reversion to an ancestral type of character."  [1913 Webster]
•  recurrence of or reversion to a past style, outlook, approach, or manner.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

atavism, n.
1 a resemblance to remote ancestors rather than to parents in plants or animals.
2 reversion to an earlier type.

Derivative

atavistic adj. atavistically adv.

Etymology

F atavisme f. L atavus great-grandfather's grandfather

THESAURUS

atavism

Mnemosyne, aboriginality, affect memory, age, ancien regime, ancientness, anterograde memory, antiquity, backset, backward deviation, cobwebs of antiquity, collective memory, computer memory, disk memory, drum memory, dust of ages, eld, elderliness, eldership, emotional response, engram, falling back, great age, hoary age, hoary eld, information storage, inveteracy, kinesthetic memory, lapse, memory, memory bank, memory circuit, memory trace, mind, mneme, old age, old order, old style, oldness, primitiveness, primogeniture, primordialism, primordiality, race memory, recollection, recrudescence, recurrence, regression, relapse, remembrance, renewal, return, reversal, reverse, reversion, screen memory, senility, seniority, setback, skill, souvenir, tape memory, throwback, venerableness, verbal response, visual memory

ROGET THESAURUS

atavism

Reversion

N reversion, return, revulsion, turning point, turn of the tide, status quo ante bellum, calm before a storm, alternation, inversion, recoil, retreat, regression, retrogression, restoration, relapse, recidivism, atavism, vicinism, reverting, regressive, revulsive, reactionary, retrorse, a rebours.