relict

Etymology

The noun in its sense "widow" is inherited from Middle English relicte,^[2][3] probably borrowed from Middle French relicte (“widow”) and its source borrowed from Medieval Latin relicta,^[4][3][2][5] the noun use of the feminine past participle of Latin relinquō (“to leave behind”).^[4][3][6] In its senses of "remains" the noun is partly borrowed from Latin relictum (“that which is left, residue”), the neuter of the same participle.^[4][7] The adjective is borrowed from Latin relictus (“forsaken, abandoned, left untouched”),^[4][2][8] and later partly a conversion of the noun.^[4][9] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and linquō (“to leave”),^[3] from Proto-Indo-European *leikʷ- (“to leave”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Left undisturbed: the adjective, about 1440, in a translation of Palladius, of the top shoots left on a vine: "Relicte on hit oonly the croppis hie".^[4][2][3] The noun follows about 1460, as "widow", in the English register of Oseney Abbey: "Moolde, relicte of Raph ffrensh of Thrope".^[4][2][6]

Semantic evolution

Hoad notes that "widow" is first found in Scottish use,^[5] and it stayed the main sense for centuries: Johnson (1755) gives only "a widow; a wife desolate by the death of her husband".^[10] Etymonline says it later became a semi-legal or formal word, perhaps through confusion with relic, and quotes Fowler's "more often seen than heard".^[3] The OED says the two words overlap heavily and have probably influenced each other's senses, and it records relict for a relic from 1535, originally in Scots, and for a reliquary in Scots from 1518 to 1689.^[4] The general sense of a survivor or remnant dates from the late 16th century.^[4][6] From the 19th century it became a technical term, for a species surviving from an earlier age, a form left over in a language, and a rock or landform that has outlasted its surroundings.^[4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – adjective, left undisturbed (obsolete by 1500).^[4][2][3]
• c. 1460 – noun, a widow.^[4][2][6]
• 1518 – in Scots, a reliquary (obsolete by 1689).^[4]
• 1535 – a relic, originally in Scots.^[4]
• 1570 – a surviving part; a survivor.^[4]
• 1584 – adjective, of land, left by the retreat of water; of property, abandoned.^[4]
• 1587 – adjective, of a spouse, surviving.^[4][7]
• 1598 – in the plural, remains, remnants.^[4][6]
• 1646 – a thing surviving from an earlier period, in Sir Thomas Browne's Pseudodoxia Epidemica.^[4]
• 1811 – in biology, a species surviving from an earlier age.^[4] Barnhart dates the sense to 1905, and the Shorter Oxford to the early 20th century.^[6][9]
• 1823 – in linguistics, a form surviving from an earlier language.^[4]
• 1891 – in geology, a rock or landform surviving from an earlier age.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ecology) A plant or animal group that survives as a remnant of a once widespread kind, often in a much smaller area: This fern is a relict of the last ice age.^{[11][12][7][4]}
2. (geology) A mountain, lake, mineral or other feature that remains after the rest of a formation has been destroyed or altered.^[11][7][4]
3. Something that has survived from an earlier time; a remnant.^[12][4]
4. (linguistics) A form surviving from an earlier language or system.^[4][9]
5. (archaic) A widow; in law, a widow or widower.^{[11][12][7][9][4]}
6. (archaic) In the plural, remains, especially of a dead person.^[7][11][4]

Adjective

1. Surviving as a remnant of a kind otherwise extinct: a relict population of trout.^[7][4]
2. Remaining after other parts have disappeared or been altered; residual: a relict glacier.^[7][12][4]

Related words

• delict
• delinquency
• delinquent
• derelict
• relic
• relinquish
• reliquary

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged allows relic as a less common variant of the adjective.^[7] Hoad and the OED treat the two words as closely tied in form and sense.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt