Acquired characteristic
noun
a characteristic of an organism that results from increased use or disuse of an organ or the effects of the environment and cannot be inherited See also Lamarckism
Historical Examples
They acquired characteristic modes of speaking, of thinking.
Stage-coach and Tavern Days Alice Morse Earle
“An acquired characteristic, I assure you,” said Temple, remembering his first meeting with Betty.
The Incomplete Amorist E. Nesbit
An acquired characteristic I don’t think you can depend on so much.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting Northern Nut Growers Association
acquired characteristic
(ə-kwīrd’)
A nonhereditary change of function or structure in a plant or animal made in response to the environment. Acquired characteristics include bodily changes brought about by disease or by repeated use or disuse of a body part (as in the building or atrophy of muscle tissue). The heritability of acquired characteristics was advocated by certain biological theorists like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and rejected by Charles Darwin in his formulation of the theory of evolution.
Read Also:
- Acquired drive
noun (psychol) a drive, like the desire for money, that has not been inherited but is learned, presumably because it leads to the satisfaction of innate drives acquired drive n. See secondary drive.
- Acquired epileptic aphasia
acquired epileptic aphasia acquired epileptic aphasia n. See Landau-Kleffner syndrome.
- Acquired fanconi's syndrome
acquired fanconi’s syndrome acquired Fanconi’s syndrome n. A complex of defects in the functioning of renal tubules associated with multiple myeloma or trauma.
- Acquired hyperlipoproteinemia
acquired hyperlipoproteinemia acquired hyperlipoproteinemia n. Hyperlipoproteinemia that develops as a consequence of some primary disease, such as thyroid deficiency. Also called nonfamilial hyperlipoproteinemia.
- Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
. noun the full name for AIDS acquired immune deficiency syndrome n. AIDS. acquired immune deficiency syndrome See AIDS.