fos·sil  (f ŏs əl)
Share:
n.1. A remnant or trace of an organism of a past geologic age, such as a skeleton or leaf imprint, embedded and preserved in the earth's crust. 2. One that is outdated or antiquated: He was viewed as a fossil after decades in the same job. 3. Linguistics a. A word or morpheme that is used only in certain restricted contexts, as kempt in unkempt, but is otherwise obsolete. b. An archaic syntactic rule or pattern used only in idioms, as so be it. adj.1. Characteristic of or having the nature of a fossil. 2. Being or similar to a fossil. 3. Belonging to the past; antiquated.
[From Latin fossilis, dug up, from fossus, past participle of fodere, to dig.]  (click for a larger image) fossiltop: Jurassic era crustacean Cycleryon sp. bottom: Devonian era plant Archaeopteris sp.  (click for a larger image) fossil |