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Atavistic vs Primate - What's the difference?

atavistic | primate |

As an adjective atavistic

is (biology) of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.

As a noun primate is

(zoology) a mammal of the order primates , including simians and prosimians or primate can be (ecclesiastical) in the catholic church, a rare title conferred to or claimed by the sees of certain archbishops, or the highest-ranking bishop of a present or historical, usually political circumscription.

atavistic

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (biology) of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.
  • * 1889 , U.S. Office of Experiment Stations, Experiment Station Record
  • Although the heterozygote gives it an atavistic appearance, the gene is not atavistic.
  • * 1946 , Reginald Ruggles Gates, Human genetics
  • Thus the gene which produced atavistic digits in the vigorous heterozygous pentadactyl condition is a lethal monster in the homozygous condition.
  • * 2006 , Roger E Stevenson, Judith G Hall, Human malformations and related anomalies
  • Reactivation of a dormant atavistic gene could account for the abnormal costocoracoid ligament in humans.
  • of a throwback or exhibiting primitivism.
  • * 1934 , Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
  • They made me feel that I was alive in the nineteenth century, a sort of atavistic remnant, a romantic shred…
  • * 1979 , Norman Spinrad, A world between
  • The true perversion took place only in the privacy of her mind — the way she imagined an atavistic macho atop her when engaged in a mandatory contribution to the fetus-banks with some cretinous inept breeder…
  • * 2000 , Steven Heller, Marshall Arisman, The education of an illustrator
  • Because I am atavistic enough to believe that drawing is the basic language of the illustrator, even as words comprise the basic language of the writer…
  • relating to earlier, more primitive behavior that returns after an absence.
  • Derived terms

    * atavistically

    primate

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) primate.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (zoology) A mammal of the order Primates , including simians and prosimians.
  • ''Primates range from lemurs to gorillas
  • (informal) A simian anthropoid; an ape, human or monkey.
  • Hyponyms
    * See also * ape * aye-aye * capuchin * douroucouli * entrina * exarch * galago * gibbon * great ape * howler monkey * human, human being * indri * lemur * loris * marmoset * monkey * night monkey * owl monkey * patriarch * potto * saki * simian * spider monkey * squirrel monkey * tamarin * tarsier * titi * uakari * woolly monkey

    Etymology 2

    (English (m)). Compare (m), of similar derivation and meaning.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (ecclesiastical) In the Catholic Church, a rare title conferred to or claimed by the sees of certain archbishops, or the highest-ranking bishop of a present or historical, usually political circumscription.
  • (ecclesiastical) In the Anglican Church, an archbishop, or the highest-ranking bishop of an ecclesiastic province.
  • Derived terms

    * Primates * primateship * Primate of All England * Primate of England * Primate of the Gauls

    See also

    * (l) ----