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Primal vs Atavistic - What's the difference?

primal | atavistic |

As adjectives the difference between primal and atavistic

is that primal is being the first in time, or history while atavistic is of the recurrence of a trait reappearing after an absence of one or more generations due to a chance recombination of genes.

primal

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Being the first in time, or history.
    • primal man
  • Being of greatest importance; primary.
  • (meat trade) Being one of the pieces of meat initially separated from the carcass during butchering, prior to division into smaller cuts.

    • Synonyms

    * (first in time or history ): aboriginal, primaeval/primeval, primordial * (being of greatest importance ): primary

    Derived terms

    * primal therapist * primal therapy * primality * primally

    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

    Related terms

    * atavism * atavist