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more about atavism
atavism |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: 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 From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: atavism n : a reappearance of an earlier characteristic [syn: {reversion}, {throwback}]
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