throwback

Deverbal from throw back.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹəʊ.bæk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈθɹoʊ.bæk/
• Hyphenation: throw‧back

throwback (countable and uncountable, plural throwbacks)

1. A reversion to an earlier stage of development.
   • 1986, Ronald Reagan, Presidential Radio Address - 17 May 1986:

     You see, the House of Representatives recently passed a military budget that is wholly inadequate, a throwback to the seventies, a budget that is a breach of faith with our Armed Forces and our allies and would send exactly the wrong signal to the Soviets and their satellites.

   • December 13 2021, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in Time Magazine‎:

     The man from the future where technology makes all things possible is a throwback to our glorious industrial past, before America stagnated and stopped producing anything but rules, restrictions, limits, obstacles and Facebook.

   • 2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 59:

     My next train is a throwback to earlier times. TfW is now the only operator of the old single-car Class 153s (apart from a handful of ScotRail bike-carrying conversions), and a pair of them have turned up to take me to Carmarthen.

2. (derogatory) A person considered to be primitive, uncivilized and mentally deficient.
3. An organism that has characteristics of a more primitive form.
4. An atavism.
5. A person similar to an ancestor, or something new similar to what already existed.
   • 1901 August – 1902 April, A Conan Doyle, chapter 13, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, , published 1902, →OCLC, pages 296–297:

     "But this is marvellous. It might be his portrait."
     "Yes, it is an interesting instance of a throw-back, which appears to be both physical and spiritual. A study of family portraits is enough to convert a man to the doctrine of reincarnation. The fellow is a Baskerville—that is evident."

6. (slang, often attributive) A person or thing that evokes memories.
   • 2017 May 22, Mallory Carra, “Celine Dion Is Making Everyone Cry”, in Bustle‎, BDG Media, retrieved 2021-10-11:

     Céline Dion belted her iconic song "My Heart Will Go On" in a show-stopping performance at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards on May 21. The legendary singer gave the throwback performance in honor of the 20th anniversary of the hit song from the Titanic soundtrack.

   • 2024 March 27, Connie Loizos, “Marissa Mayer's startup just rolled out photo sharing and event planning apps, and the internet isn't sure what to think”, in TechCrunch‎:

     It’s tempting to dismiss the 15-person outfit as out of touch. But Mayer may be onto something with Sunshine, and that’s nostalgia. Throwback tech is all the rage these days.

7. (US, accounting) A practice to avoid untaxed nowhere income by instead taxing such income in the originating state for a given transaction.

   Coordinate terms: nowhere income, throwout

   • 2005, LeAnn Luna, “Throwback rules, multistate corporations”, in Joseph J. Cordes, Robert D. Ebel, Jane G. Gravelle, editors, The Encyclopedia of Taxation & Tax Policy (Second Edition), The Urban Institute Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 436:

     Under the throwback rule, sales into a state where the taxpayer is not taxable are “thrown back” from the destination state to the origin state by adding the nontaxable sales to the numerator in the apportionment factor.

   • 2006, Joann Martens-Weiner, chapter 4, in Company Tax Reform in the European Union: Guidance from the United States and Canada on Implementing Formulary Apportionment in the EU, Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., →ISBN, →LCCN, page 53:

     The effect of the throwback rule is to distribute income according to sales in the origin state. The effect of the throwout rule is to distribute income according to the taxpayer’s overall activities as measured by the other apportionment factors.

   • 2009, Stefan Mayer, chapter 4, in Formulary Apportionment for the Internal Market (Doctoral Series; 17), IBFD, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 220:

     Attributing the gross receipts to the Member State of origin (i.e. applying a throwback rule) constitutes a benefit for that state that is not justified by the rationale of the gross receipts factor.

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