atavistic
3
9.9
- adjective
- /ˌætəˈvɪstɪk/
- Specialized
:
atavista
- Chicago blues is an atavistic industrial art form.
- atavistic power
Examples
-
The crowd feels a deep atavistic thrill.
Fiction book (2001) -
Indeed, the movie kindled something pure and atavistic inside him.
Fiction book (2001) -
I felt a surge of almost atavistic dislike for this condescending man.
Fiction book (1995) -
And this new atavistic sovereignty supersedes the nation's sovereignty and flouts its democratic principles.
Academic text (1998) -
The two prophets, separated by a half century, dream, traverse the heavens, and stir souls as atavistic, charismatic leaders.
Academic text (1992) -
On the one hand, you have Romanticism, which can be understood in this context as a kind of atavistic throwback to aristocratic and feudal idealism.
-
The first theory contended that the real religion of the mezzogiorno was an atavistic remnant of Greco-Roman paganism with a superficial veneer of Catholicism.
Academic text (2003) -
The atavistic traits of the ancestors can still be seen in some modern humans.
-
His fear of the dark felt atavistic, as if inherited from primitive ancestors.
-
In her love for the wilderness, there was an atavistic connection to her forebears.
Synonyms
4
7.9
Having features like things from an earlier time
How Primitive
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word atavistic comes from the Latin root atavus, which means 'ancestor'. It describes actions or features that seem to come back from very distant ancestors, so calling something atavistic means it is like a very old behavior or habit from our ancestors.