OXFORD 9000
📚 adj • entry_id 34170

atavistic

/æt.əˈvɪs.tɪk/
Meanings (ES + gloss)
atávico
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.
Thus the gene which produced atavistic digits in the vigorous heterozygous pentadactyl condition is a lethal monster in the homozygous condition.
atávico
Of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
The true perversion took place only in the privacy of her mind — the way she imagined an atavistic macho atop her when engaged in a mandatory contribution to the fetus-banks with s…
They made me feel that I was alive in the nineteenth century, a sort of atavistic remnant, a romantic shred […]
atávico
Relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.