Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to or characterized by atavism; atavic.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective displaying characteristics of a previous cultural era or of a previous ancestral form; displaying atavism.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
- adjective of a
throwback or exhibitingprimitivism . - adjective relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective characteristic of an atavist
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Members of the audience actually gasped when Hayek referred to Socialism as 'atavistic' - the reversion to an older, more primitive form.
Socialism as Primitivism, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Maybe they're just being atavistic, which is generally part of the successful business person's act anyway.
Fortune 's Stanley Bing: How Not to Work a Cocktail Party 2010
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But such cases are so infrequent that they may well be counted atavistic, that is, of the nature of a tendency to return to a previous merely animal condition.
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But it divides between those whose feelings might be termed atavistic or revanchist and those who make a reasoned critique, in sorrow as much as anger, of Western policies - especially the Iraq war, the Kosovo affair from 1999 onwards, United States plans for theatre missile-defence, and, not least, the expansion of NATO.
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I have come to the conclusion that certain types of people need scapegoats and sacrificial victims to satisfy some kind of atavistic sadism that compels them to attack what is beautiful and good.
First on the Ticker: Bush, Palin aide disputes book claims 2009
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I have come to the conclusion that certain types of people need scapegoats and sacrificial victims to satisfy some kind of atavistic sadism that compels them to attack what is beautiful and good.
First on the Ticker: Bush, Palin aide disputes book claims 2009
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I have come to the conclusion that certain types of people need scapegoats and sacrificial victims to satisfy some kind of atavistic sadism that compels them to attack what is beautiful and good.
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Well, admittedly I had to look up "atavistic" and it means a "throwback", or old fashioned.
Latest Articles NYT 2010
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In a delivery style that was uncharacteristically fluent, he lambasted the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), describing them as "atavistic" and operating as if they are in the "dark ages".
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I have come to the conclusion that certain types of people need scapegoats and sacrificial victims to satisfy some kind of atavistic sadism that compels them to attack what is beautiful and good.
CNN Political Ticker 2009
uselessness commented on the word atavistic
This word makes me want to study my genealogy and see if I have any famous ancestors I'm emulating.
June 13, 2007
yarb commented on the word atavistic
Citation on berk.
June 30, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word atavistic
"With a faint atavistic sense of housewifeliness, I tucked a soft green pillow under his head."
—Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (NY: Bantam Dell, 2001), 761
January 26, 2010
1286343606 commented on the word atavistic
atavistic guilt; throwback guilt
June 3, 2011
Louises commented on the word atavistic
'That tone of certainty persists, an atavistic trait that defies the evolution of its notional subject.' The Absence of Mind by Marilynne Robinson 2010.
April 17, 2013
Logophile77 commented on the word atavistic
Defn. 2: Of or pertaining to a grandfather.
December 17, 2017