Hypertext Webster Gateway: "atavism"
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) 1.7 (wn)
atavism
n : a reappearance of an earlier characteristic [syn: {reversion},
{throwback}]
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