relict

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Latin relictus, past participle of relinquō (“I leave behind, abandon, relinquish”), from re- + linquō (“I leave, quit, forsake, depart from”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈrɛlɪkt/

Noun

relict (plural relicts)

1. (archaic) The surviving member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower
   • 1973, Patrick O'Brian, HMS Surprise:

     But I am not the penniless nonentity I was when we first met; I can offer an honorable if not a brilliant marriage; and at the very lowest I can provide my wife – my widow, my relict – with a decent competence, an assured future.

2. (biology, geology) A species or other structure which has survived from a previous age.
3. (linguistics) A survival of an archaic word, language or other form.

Adjective

relict (not comparable)

1. surviving, remaining
2. that is a relict, pertaining to a relict
   • 1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, page 97:

     In the lakes and in the streams were species of fish not known elsewhere on earth and birds and lizards and other forms of life as well all long relict here for the desert stretched away on every side.

Related terms

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

External links

• relict in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• relict in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• relict at OneLook Dictionary Search