remnant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English remnaunt, also remnant, a contraction of remenaunt or remanant,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} borrowed from Old French remanant, also remenant (“rest, remainder, surplus”),^[4][7][8][9] the noun use of the present participle of remanoir (“to remain”), also remenoir and remaindre.^{[9][4][6][10][7]} The Anglo-Norman form was remenaunt.^[2] The OED explains remnant as remanant with the middle syllable dropped.^[3] The French verb continues Latin remaneō (“to stay behind, remain”),^[11][9] formed from re- (“back”) and maneō (“to stay, remain”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to remain”).^[9] It is related to remain and remainder.^[12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The longer form remenant, the remainder, is recorded from about 1300 in Etymonline, and before 1300 in Barnhart.^[9][4] The contracted remnant first appears before 1375, in William of Palerne, for the remaining part of a number of people.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered the rest of anything: the rest of an estate, of a story or text, of a sum of money, of a day or of life, and in arithmetic the result of a subtraction.^[2] Chaucer used remenaunt 38 times and Gower 42 times.^[13] From the start it was also used of a small remaining part, and in particular of a short length of cloth or fur.^[2] The cloth sense is recorded from the mid-15th century in Etymonline,^[9] but only from 1571 in the OED, of the end of a piece left over after the rest has been used or sold.^[3] In the Wycliffite Bible (1382) the word was used for a small remaining number of people,^[3] and this biblical use gave the remnant of a faith, a small group who see themselves as keeping its true teaching (1598),^[3] and the remnant of the Jews who survived exile or persecution.^[3][5] From 1560 it also meant a surviving trace of a quality, belief or state of things.^[3] The adjective, remaining or left over, dates from 1550 in Merriam-Webster, but from the 1540s in Etymonline;^[10][9] Johnson (1755) called it "corruptly formed from remanent".^[14] In Scots a remnant could be a small piece or a feeble old person, the wreck of a man.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – remenant, the remainder.^[9]
• before 1375 – remnant, the remaining part of a number of people.^[3]
• 1382 – a small remaining number of people.^[3]
• c. 1400 – the remainder of a thing.^[3]
• c. 1450 – a small portion, a fragment.^[3]
• 1550 – adjective, remaining.^[10] Etymonline dates it to the 1540s.^[10][9]
• 1560 – a surviving trace of a quality or belief.^[3]
• 1571 – the end of a piece of cloth left over.^[3]
• 1598 – a small religious group holding to the true faith.^[3]
• 1853 – in geology, a residual landform.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A part, usually a small one, that is left over after the rest has been used, removed or lost; the remainder: The remnants of dinner were still on the table.^[16][10][3]
2. A surviving trace or vestige of something that has otherwise passed away: a remnant of the old feudal order.^[16][3]
3. A piece of fabric left at the end of a bolt or roll, usually sold cheaply.^[16][3][5]
4. A small number of people surviving from a larger group; in religion, a faithful minority, especially the Jews who survived exile or persecution.^[3][5][10]
5. (geomorphology) A residual landform standing above the surrounding surface.^[3][5]

Adjective

1. Remaining; left over.^[16][10][14]

Word family

• remnantal
• supernova remnant

Related words

• remain
• remanent
• remainder
• remains

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins