fossil

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See also: Fossil, fóssil, and fòssil

English

A fossil.
 fossil on Wikipedia

Etymology

From French fossile, from Latin fossilis (something which has been dug up), from fodio (I dig up).

Pronunciation

Noun

fossil (plural fossils)

  1. The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 1987, Cora Oostendorp, The Bryophytes of the Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic (Bryophytorum Bibliotheca; 34), Berlin, Stuttgart: J. Cramer, page 9:
      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.
  2. (paleontology) Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
    • 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 February 2012, page 162:
      He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
  3. (linguistics) A fossil word.
  4. (figuratively) Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.
  5. (figuratively, derogatory) An extremely old or outdated person.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
      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!’

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Danish

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis, from fossa (ditch).

Adjective

fossil

  1. fossil (noun modifier), fossilised (UK), fossilized
Inflection
Inflection of fossil
positive comparative superlative
indefinite common singular fossil 2
indefinite neuter singular fossilt 2
plural fossile 2
definite attributive1 fossile

1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Etymology 2

From New Latin fossile.

Noun

fossil n (singular definite fossilet, plural indefinite fossiler)

  1. fossil
Inflection
Declension of fossil
neuter
gender
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative fossil fossilet fossiler fossilerne
genitive fossils fossilets fossilers fossilernes

German

Etymology

From Latin fossilis (something which has been dug up), from fodio (I dig up).

Adjective

fossil (strong nominative masculine singular fossiler, not comparable)

  1. fossil

Declension

Further reading

  • fossil” in Duden online
  • fossil” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis.

Adjective

fossil (neuter singular fossilt, definite singular and plural fossile)

  1. fossilised (UK), fossilized, or fossil (noun modifier: e.g. fossil fuels)

Etymology 2

From New Latin fossile.

Noun

fossil m or n (definite singular fossilen or fossilet, indefinite plural fossiler or fossil, definite plural fossilene or fossila)

  1. a fossil (fossilised remains of an animal or plant)
Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis.

Adjective

fossil (neuter singular fossilt, definite singular and plural fossile)

  1. fossilised (UK), fossilized, or fossil (noun modifier)

Etymology 2

From New Latin.

Noun

fossil n (definite singular fossilet, indefinite plural fossil, definite plural fossila)

  1. a fossil (as above)

References

Swedish

Pronunciation

Adjective

fossil

  1. fossil

Declension

Inflection of fossil
Indefinite positive comparative superlative1
common singular fossil
neuter singular fossilt
plural fossila
masculine plural2 fossile
Definite positive comparative superlative
masculine singular3 fossile
all fossila

1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
2 Dated or archaic.
3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Noun

fossil n

  1. a fossil

Declension

References