atavism

Etymology
From.

Noun

 * 1) The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; a throwback.
 * 2) The recurrence or reversion to a past behaviour, method, characteristic or style after a long period of absence.
 * 3)  Reversion to past primitive behavior, especially violence.
 * 1) The recurrence or reversion to a past behaviour, method, characteristic or style after a long period of absence.
 * 2)  Reversion to past primitive behavior, especially violence.
 * 1)  Reversion to past primitive behavior, especially violence.

Usage notes
Can be used both positively, to refer to past or ancestral characteristics, or pejoratively, referring specifically to past primitive characteristics.

A rather formal term; in popular speech the circumlocution is often used for traits that occur after a generation of absence.

Translations

 * Albanian:
 * Bashkir: атавизм
 * Catalan:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 隔代遺傳,
 * Czech:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Galician:
 * German: (1)
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic: áalíking
 * Ido:
 * Italian: atavismo
 * Japanese:
 * Kazakh: атавизм
 * Kyrgyz: атавизм
 * Manx: aaghooghys
 * Norwegian: atavisme
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Slovak: atavizmus
 * Spanish:
 * Volapük:

Etymology
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