Where does “atavism” come from?
Atavism derives from French atavisme, formed from Latin avus meaning "grandfather" with the French suffix -isme, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -mós.
atavism (English): The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic...
Definitions
- The reappearance of an ancestral characteristic...
Ancestry of “atavism”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | atavisme | atavism |
| 2 | Latin | atavus | ancestor; great-great-great-grandfather |
| 3 | Latin | ad- | to; usually prefixed to verbs, in which cases it... |
| 4 | Latin | īn- | un-, non-, not |
| 5 | Latin | în | in, at, on, upon, from (space) |
| 6 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |