different between atavistic vs atavism

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /æt.??v?s.t?k/
• Rhymes: -?st?k

Adjective

atavistic (comparative more atavistic, superlative most atavistic)

1. (biology) of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
   • 1889, U.S. Office of Experiment Stations, Experiment Station Record

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

   • 2006, Roger E Stevenson, Judith G Hall, Human malformations and related anomalies

     Reactivation of a dormant atavistic gene could account for the abnormal costocoracoid ligament in humans.

2. of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
   • 2000, Steven Heller, Marshall Arisman, The education of an illustrator

     Because I am atavistic enough to believe that drawing is the basic language of the illustrator, even as words comprise the basic language of the writer…

3. relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.

Synonyms

• atavistical

Derived terms

• atavistically

Related terms

• atavism
• atavist

Translations

English

Etymology

From French atavisme.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æt??v?z?m/

Noun

atavism (countable and uncountable, plural atavisms)

1. The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; a throwback.
2. The recurrence or reversion to a past behaviour, method, characteristic or style after a long period of absence.
3. (sociology) Reversion to past primitive behavior, especially violence.
   • 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Chapter XXXVI, [2]

     I have even read in a book of criminology that the tramp is an atavism, a throw-back to the nomadic stage of humanity.

Usage notes

Can be used both positively, to refer to past or ancestral characteristics, or pejoratively, referring specifically to past primitive characteristics.

A rather formal term; in popular speech the circumlocution skip a generation is often used for traits that occur after a generation of absence.

Derived terms

• atavist
• atavistic
• atavistical

Translations

See also

• throwback

References

Romanian

Etymology

From French atavisme

Noun

atavism n (uncountable)

1. atavism

Declension