acquired character

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acquired character

n.
A change of function or structure in an organism made in response to the environment. Also called acquired characteristic.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

acquired′ char′acter


n.
a noninheritable trait that results from certain environmental influences.
[1875–80]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in classic literature
If it could be shown that our domestic varieties manifested a strong tendency to reversion,--that is, to lose their acquired characters, whilst kept under unchanged conditions, and whilst kept in a considerable body, so that free intercrossing might check, by blending together, any slight deviations of structure, in such case, I grant that we could deduce nothing from domestic varieties in regard to species.
View in context
Canalization of development and inheritance of acquired characters. Nature 150:563-565, 1942.
Epigenetics--new frontier for alcohol research
Most biology texts villify Lamarck's concept of "inheritance of acquired characters" and leave the impression that all acquired characters are never transmitted to offspring.
Acquired traits revisited
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