relic

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English relik, also relike and relique,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman relike, Old French relique,^[3][4][5][6] a word for the physical remains of a saint or martyr, recorded in Old French from about 1100 and often in the plural.^[3][7] The French word is from Latin reliquiae (“remains, remnants”),^[3][4][6][8] which in Late Latin meant especially the remains of a martyr;^[4][5][9] Merriam-Webster traces the singular to Medieval Latin reliquia, a back-formation.^[10] The Latin plural is a noun use of the feminine of reliquus (“remaining”),^[4][6][8] which is related to relinquō (“to leave behind”), formed from re- (“back”) and linquō (“to leave”),^[4][5][9] from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *leykʷ- (“to leave”).^[4] Old English had borrowed the Latin plural directly as reliquias,^[4][11][2] and the OED notes an Old English relic in the compound relicgang, probably the carrying of relics in procession.^[3] The word is related to relinquish, delinquent and relict.^[8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A part of the body or belongings of a saint or other holy person, kept and venerated: the first record is in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1225, perhaps before 1200).^[3][12] Etymonline dates it to about 1200.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense came first in both French and English.^[7][6] By the early 14th century the plural also meant remains or remnants in general, what is left after the rest is lost or ruined (about 1350 in the OED),^[4][3] and by 1398 the remains or body of a dead person.^[3] In Chaucer's time a relik could also be a precious object or a beloved person, a sense that lasted until the 19th century.^[3][2] From the late 15th century it was a surviving trace of a custom, fact or idea,^[3][6] hence the phrase relic of barbarism (by 1809) for the survival of a bad old custom.^[4] In the early 17th century it came to mean a memento or souvenir (1611) and an object of interest because of its age (1605).^[3][4] Since 1832 it has also been used humorously or slightingly of an old-fashioned person or thing,^[3][13] and in biology, from 1873, of a species surviving from an earlier age, like relict.^[3] The OED suggests that relic and relict have influenced each other's development.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the body or belongings of a saint, kept as an object of veneration, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[3][12]
• c. 1350 – plural, remains, remnants.^[3][4]
• before 1398 – plural, the remains of a dead person.^[3]
• before 1400 – a sacred object of another religion.^[3]
• c. 1475 – a surviving trace of a practice or idea.^[3]
• 1605 – an object of interest because of its age.^[3]
• 1611 – a memento or souvenir.^[3]
• 1832 – an old-fashioned person or thing.^[3]
• 1889 – adjective, in biology and geology, surviving from an earlier age.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An object, custom or the like that has survived from the past: The stone circle is a relic of a forgotten religion.^[13][10][3]
2. Something kept in memory of a person, place or event; a keepsake or memento.^[13][10][3]
3. (usually plural) A remaining part or fragment.^[13][10][3]
4. In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, part of the body of a saint or martyr, or something used by one, kept and venerated.^[13][10][3]
5. (informal) An old or old-fashioned person or thing.^[13][3]
6. (archaic, plural) The remains of a dead person; a corpse.^[13][10][3]

Word family

• reliclike

Related words

• delict
• delinquent
• derelict
• relict
• relinquish
• reliquary
• reliquiae

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins