atavism

音標(biāo)發(fā)音

One striking example of an atavism is the human coccyx, or tailbone, which is a relic of the mammalian tail.
關(guān)於返祖的一個有力例証就是人類的尾骨，它是哺乳動物尾巴的遺畱物。
Xiong Bite explains imperialism from sociological viewpoint, he thinks imperialism is the atavism in structure of a kind of society.
熊彼特從社會學(xué)的觀點來解釋帝國主義，他認(rèn)爲(wèi)帝國主義是一種社會結(jié)搆中的返祖現(xiàn)象。
If learning and gentility are signs of civilization, perhaps our almost-big brains are straining against their residual atavism, struggling to expand.
如果學(xué)習(xí)和溫婉是文明的標(biāo)志，那麼也許可以說我們那不算太大的大的大腦正在超越落後的殘餘，努力擴展著自己。

What is causing the U.S. Ambassador, Robert Strauss, to bewail the "wild card" of the Red Army, and inducing our new Director of Central Intelligence to send solons to dictionaries with his predictions of "xenophobic atavism"?
CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Gorby Invites the Deluge

the recurrence in a plant or animal of certain primitive characteristics that were present in an ancestor but have not occurred in intermediate generations