Etymology

atavism

at·a·vism
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Today it means: The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence; a throwback. Full definition →

French atavisme ← Latin atavus ← Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwh₂os
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éd
  2. Proto-Italic*ad
  3. Proto-Italic*ad-
  4. Latinat-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂éwh₂os
  6. Latinavus
  7. Latinatavus
  8. Frenchatavisme
  9. English todayatavism

Borrowed from French atavisme.. By surface analysis, at- (“to”) + Latin av(us) (“grandfather, ancestor”) + -ism. Compare ancestorism.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.