atavistic

Synonyms for atavistic

adj barbaric, crude

"pertaining to atavism," 1847; see atavism + -ic.

This is of great importance in view of the atavistic origin of crime.

It is only an atavistic phenomenon, the return to a former state.

The criminal is an atavistic being, a relic of a vanished race.

Citizen Howard Temple-Tracy is a dangerous, atavistic, evil genius.

Perhaps it is atavistic—this desire to rest and swing in a hamaca.

Thus there was no progeny to inherit their atavistic tendencies.

Because she was terrified, the same sort of atavistic process was at work in her.

This is a system which is based on the simplest and most atavistic of human emotionsjealousy.

We are an ignorant, atavistic people; and our priests are wondrous moral.

Neither can the atavistic man try to be something for which his nature was not made.