[a. F. atavisme, f. L. atav-us a great-grandfather’s grandfather, an ancestor; cf. av-us grandfather.] Resemblance to grand-parents or more remote ancestors rather than to parents; tendency to reproduce the ancestral type in animals or plants.
1833. J. Rennie, Sci. Gardening, 113. Children often resemble their grandfathers or grandmothers more than their immediate parents…. This propensity is termed Atavism by Duchesne.
1872. Bagehot, Physics & Pol., 218. Some mysterious atavism—some strange recurrence to a primitive past.
b. Path. Recurrence of the disease or constitutional symptoms of an ancestor after the intermission of one or more generations.
