A person who believes in or follows the theory that traits and characteristics pass down from ancestors to descendants through inheritance.
From descendent (from Latin descendere, 'to descend') + -al + -ist. The suffix -ist marks someone who adheres to a particular belief or theory, developed in 19th-century discussions of heredity.
This word captures a specific moment in scientific history when people were trying to understand how traits passed through families—before DNA was discovered, they had competing theories about inheritance, and descendentalists championed one particular view.
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