fossil
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɒsl̩/
ipa: /ˈfɑsl̩/
rhymes: -ɒsəl
Forms: form: fossils
Etymology: From French fossile, from Latin fossilis (“something which has been dug up”), from fodio (“I dig up”).
Senses: examples: text: With the permission of the Keeper of the fossil collection, therefore, the specimen was subjected to a further careful removal of the matrix in the requisite directions.
ref: 1870, T. H. Huxley, “On Hypsilophodon Foxii, a new Dinosaurian from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight”, in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, volume 26, page 9:
text: Within the Hepaticae two types of fossils can be distinguished: those with sufficient characters to assign them to an order and those with more obscure characters.
ref: 1987, Cora Oostendorp, The Bryophytes of the Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic (Bryophytorum Bibliotheca; 34), Berlin, Stuttgart: J. Cramer, page 9:
glosses: The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
examples: text: He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
ref: 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 13 Feb 2012, page 162:
text: You know what, we’ve got a limited number of heartbeats in this world so if you’re only truly happy researching fossils and can make it work for you, you go for it.
ref: 2016 November 9, Mark Carnall, “Is palaeontology a waste of public money?”, in The Guardian:
topics: biology
history
human-sciences
natural-sciences
paleontology
sciences
glosses: Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A fossil word.
glosses: Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.
examples: text: I do not want to convey any disrespectful notion or slight when I call those good and learned men fossils, but my experience is that people are apt to fossilise even at a University if they follow the same paths too persistently.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: All at once there was a tapping at the window pane. Atherton was staring at us from without. He shouted through the glass, ‘Come out of that, you fossils! — I’ve news for you!’
ref: 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
glosses: An extremely old or outdated person.
Derived terms: body fossil
cast fossil
chemofossil
fossilate
fossil car
fossil damascus
fossildom
fossiled
fossil fool
fossil fuel
fossil gas
fossilhood
fossiliferous
fossilification
fossilify
fossilisation
fossilization
fossilise
fossilize
fossilism
fossilist
fossility
fossillike
fossilogy
fossil oil
fossilology
fossil record
fossil resin
fossil twister
fossil water
ichnofossil
index fossil
living fossil
macrofossil
magnetofossil
megafossil
mesofossil
microfossil
mold fossil
nanofossil
non-fossil
nonfossil
palynofossil
pseudofossil
semifossil
subfossil
technofossil
trace fossil
Related terms: word: coprolite
english: Oregon
translation: Oregon
word: Fossil