relict

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relict

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Inherited from Middle English relicte (“widow”), from Middle French relicte (“widow”), from Late Latin relicta (“widow”), from Latin relictus, past participle of relinquō (“I abandon, I relinquish, I leave (behind)”), from re- + linquō (“I leave, quit, forsake, depart from”). Doublet of relic, derelict, and relinquish.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛlɪkt/

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relict (plural relicts)

1. (formal) Something that, or someone who, survives or remains or is left over after the loss of others; a relic.
   1. (archaic) The surviving member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower.
      • 1801, Reports of cases decided in the High court of Chancery of Maryland, volume 3, page 268:

        Upon which the Chancellor, by way of note said, 'it is suggested, that there is a relict of the deceased, married to another man, who has joined her in a power of attorney to authorize the sale of her interest, […] '

      • 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, ecology) A species, organism, or ecosystem that has survived from a previous age: one that was once widespread but is now found only in a few areas.
      • 1966 October, Rudolf M Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume I, New York, N.Y.; London: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 4:

        […] a continental northern Alaskan element, including a series of endemic species and disjuncts that have survived the Pleistocene glaciation in northern Alaska and thus represent relicts of the much warmer Tertiary […]

      • 2010, M. Zimmerman et al., edited by Jan Christian Habel and Thorsten Assmann, Relict Species: Phylogeography and Conservation Biology, page 324:

        The species may be a relict of former stages of historical vegetation and landscape development resulting from past climate changes (glacial and post- glacial periods).

   3. (geology) A structure or other feature that has survived from a previous age.
      • 2011, Mark Keiter, Chris Ballhaus, Frank Tomaschek, A New Geological Map of the Island of Syros (Aegean Sea, Greece), page 16:

        Dark rims around the pillows are caused by glaucophane enrichment, possibly a relict of a primary interaction between basalt and seawater, causing Na- enrichment in the original glass crust of the pillows.

   4. (linguistics) A survival of an archaic word, language or other form.

      A small number of linguists believe that Cimbrian is not an Austro-Bavarian dialect but a relict of Lombardic.

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.

• “relict”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “relict”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “relict”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

From Latin relictum.

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relict n (plural relicten, diminutive relictje n)

1. relict

Borrowed from German relikt or Latin relictus.

• IPA^(key): /reˈlikt/

relict m or n (feminine singular relictă, masculine plural relicți, feminine and neuter plural relicte)

1. (biology) relict

• “relict”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025