4 definitions found for atavism

atavism n 1: a reappearance of an earlier characteristic [syn: atavism, reversion, throwback]

atavism
n.
1 a resemblance to remote ancestors rather than to parents in plants or animals.
2 reversion to an earlier type.
Derivatives:
atavistic adj. atavistically adv.
Etymology: F atavisme f. L atavus great-grandfather's grandfather

Atavism At"a*vism, n. [L. atavus an ancestor, fr. avus a grandfather.] (a) 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. (b) (Biol.) The recurrence of any peculiarity or disease of an ancestor in a subsequent generation, after an intermission for a generation or two. Now and then there occur cases of what physiologists call atavism, or reversion to an ancestral type of character. --J. Fiske

66 Moby Thesaurus words for "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