atavism. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

atavism

SYLLABICATION:	at·a·vism
PRONUNCIATION:	t-vzm
NOUN:	1. The reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence, usually caused by the chance recombination of genes. 2. An individual or a part that exhibits atavism. Also called throwback. 3. The return of a trait or recurrence of previous behavior after a period of absence.
ETYMOLOGY:	French atavisme, from Latin atavus, ancestor : atta, father + avus, grandfather; see awo- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS:	ata·vist —NOUN ata·vistic —ADJECTIVE ata·visti·cal·ly —ADVERB


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.