atavistic

[ at-uh-vis-tik ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characterized by atavism; reverting to or suggesting the characteristics of a remote ancestor or primitive type.

atavistic

/ ăt′ə-vĭs′tĭk /

1. Relating to an inherited trait that reappears in an individual after being absent from a strain of organism for several generations. Atavistic traits were formerly thought to be throwbacks to ancestral types but are now known to be due to the inheritance of a pair of recessive genes.

Other Words From

• ata·visti·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of atavistic¹

First recorded in 1870–75; atav(ism) + -istic

Example Sentences

An atavistic society ritual, a debutante’s ball for the M.F.A. debtset?

From New York Times

The crisis alongside the Texas border is just the latest instance of Republicans looking back to the Antebellum era for precedents to justify their increasingly atavistic behavior.

From Salon

Sorry you couldn’t experience this atavistic joy of cooking, Jackie.

From Seattle Times

The forward-facing, commercial ethos of the old GOP would have to accommodate itself to the atavistic, Lost Cause-nostalgia of the American South.

From Salon

Yet that does nothing to diminish the totemic power they wield over us, which is an expression of the unquestioned, atavistic nature of belief.

From New York Times

Related Words

• crude
• rough
• rudimentary
• simple
• uncivilized