The other say (Saturday) my dear friend Pete used the word ‘atavistic’ to describe the appearance of someone. Now based on context clues I could tell this was a ‘bit’ of an insult…but I still had to ask:
What does atavistic mean?
Pete’s response was grounded in him criminology background and described it to mean someone with primitive feature how you would describe as ‘the missing link’, additionally it is how you would characterise someone that is typically criminal in appearance – sunken eyes, prominent cheekbones, etc. This is quite an appropriate description (especially considering the context). Yet, for a complete definition here is the Merriam Webster version:
at·a·vism
noun \ˈat-ə-ˌviz-əm\
Definition of ATAVISM
1: recurrence in an organism of a trait or character typical of an ancestral form and usually due to genetic recombination
2: an individual or character manifesting atavism : throwback
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