Crossword clues for relict
relict
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Relict \Rel"ict\ (-?kt), n. [L. relicta, fr. of relictus, p. p. of relinquere to leave behind. See Relinquish.] A woman whose husband is dead; a widow.
Eli dying without issue, Jacob was obliged by law to
marry his relict, and so to raise up seed to his
brother Eli.
--South.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"a widow," mid-15c., from Old French relict, fem. relicte "person or thing left behind" (especially a widow) and directly from Medieval Latin relicta "a widow," noun use of fem. of relictus "abandoned, left behind," past participle adjective from Latin relinquere "to leave behind" (see relinquish).
Wiktionary
a. 1 surviving, remaining. 2 That is a relict#Noun; pertaining to a relict. n. 1 (context formal English) Something that, or someone who, survives or remains or is left over after the loss of others; a relic. 2 # (context archaic English) The survive member of a married couple after one or the other has died; a widow or widower. 3 # (context biology ecology English) A species, organism(,) or ecosystem which has survived from a previous age: one which was once widespread but which is now found only in a few areas. 4 # (context geology English) A structure or other feature which has survived from a previous age. 5 # (context linguistics English) A survival of an archaic word, language or other form.
WordNet
n. an organism or species surviving as a remnant of an otherwise extinct flora or fauna in an environment much changed from that in which it originated
geological feature that is a remnant of a pre-existing formation after other parts have disappeared
Wikipedia
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.
- In biology a relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas.
- In ecology, an ecosystem which originally ranged over a large expanse, but is now narrowly confined, may be termed a relict.
- In geology, the term relict refers to structures or minerals from a parent rock that did not undergo metamorphosis when the surrounding rock did, or to rock that survived a destructive geologic process.
- In geomorphology, a relict landform is a landform formed by either erosive or constructive surficial processes that are no longer active as they were in the past.
- In agronomy, a relict crop is a crop which was previously grown extensively, but is now only used in one limited region, or a small number of isolated regions.
- In history (as revealed in DNA testing), a relict population refers to an ancient people in an area who have been largely supplanted by a later group of migrants and their descendants.
- In real estate law, reliction is the gradual recession of water from its usual high-water mark so that the newly uncovered land becomes the property of the adjoining riparian property owner.
Other uses:
- In addition, relict was an ancient term still used in colonial (British) America and England of that era, now archaic, for a widow. It came to be a generic or collective term for widows and widowers.
- In historical linguistics, a relict is a word that is a survivor of a form or forms that are otherwise archaic.
In biogeography and paleontology a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population that presently occurs in a restricted area, but whose original range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch. Similarly, a relictual taxon is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) that is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group.
In geology, the term relict refers to structures or minerals from a parent rock that did not undergo metamorphic change when the surrounding rock did, or to rock that survived a destructive geologic process.
Some geologic processes are destructive or transformative of structures or minerals, and when a process is not complete or does not completely destroy certain features, the left-over feature is a relict of what was there before. For example, relict permafrost is an area of ancient permafrost which remains despite a change in climate which would prohibit new permafrost from forming. Or it could be a fragment of ancient soil or sediment found in a younger stratum. A relict sediment is an area of ancient sediment which remains unburied despite changes in the surrounding environment. In pedology, the study of soil formation and classification, ancient soil found in the geologic record is called a paleosol, material formed in the distant past on what was then the surface. A relict paleosol is still found on the surface, and yet is known to have been formed under conditions radically different from the present climate and topography.
In mineralogy, a relict mineral is a surviving mineral from a parent rock that underwent a destructive or transformative process. For example, serpentinite is a kind of rock formed in a process called serpentinization, in which a host mineral produces a pseudomorph, and the original mineral is eventually replaced and/or destroyed, but is still present until the process is complete.
Within geomorphology a relict landform is a landform that that took form from geomorphic processes that are not active at present. In a Scandinavian context this is often meant to imply that relict landforms have formed before the last glaciation and survived it under cold-based parts of the ice sheet.
Usage examples of "relict".
He was about to pursue her, to finish that conversation to his own satisfaction, when he saw the Relict Tor Bezaemar with the original of that scandalous painting, a statuesque woman whose iridescent lace overdress was pinned back to her shoulders.
Mullet, relict of the late Sylvester Mullet, and mother of Toby and a bunch of daughters, assailed Clovis Sangrail on the outskirts of the village with a breathless catalogue of local happenings.
I, Isabella Monboddo, sometime wife of Henry Monboddo, have in my widowhood given, granted, and by this my present charter confirmed, to Alethea Greatorex, Lady Marchamont of Pontifex Hall, Dorsetshire, relict of Henry Greatorex, Baron Marchamont, all lands and tenements, meadows, grazing lands and pasture, with their hedges, banks and ditches, and with all their profits and appurtenances, which I have in Wembish Park, Huntingdonshire .
Thomson, Margaret Pringle, Margaret Hamiltown, relict of James Pollwart, William Craw, Bessie Wicker, and Margaret Hamilton, relict of Thomas Mitchell, sadly tormented Borrowstounness and other parts of Linlithgowshire, in the seventeenth century.
Such was the state of things when he received an invitation to take tea sociably, with a few friends, at Hyacinth Cottage, the residence of the Widow Rowens, relict of the late Beeri Rowens, Esquire, better known as Major Rowens.
I only had enough for the balance of the boat, but I was counting on the agèd relicts anteing up.
Finally, the ungiving rock grudgingly surrendered a narrow sage, but before she gathered herself together with its tight constr the huge river had run parallel to the sea across the level plain guidly spread out into two arms interlinked by meandering chain The relict forest was left behind as Ayla and Jondalar rode into a region of flat landscape and low rolling hills covered with s ing hay, next to a huge river marsh.
Even the old dears, the sainted grannies, even the twisted relicts who lurk like pub parrots in the corner of the lounge they've all done it, God damn it.
I think she may have envisioned some relict Pliocene population eventually mating with primitive Homo sapiens-planting metapsychic seeds in the huge, marvellous, empty Neanderthaler brains.
Those relict Negritos of Southeast Asia may be the last survivors of the source population from which New Guinea was colonized.
As is also true of the three New Guinean-like relict populations that I mentioned in speaking of tropical Southeast Asia (Chapter 16), the Philippine Negritos could be relicts of populations ancestral to Wiwor's people before they reached New Guinea.
Just three relict groups of hunter-gatherers—the Semang Negritos of the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islanders, and the Veddoid Negritos of Sri Lanka—remain to suggest that tropical Southeast Asia’s former inhabitants may have been dark-skinned and curly-haired, like modern New Guineans and unlike the light-skinned, straight-haired South Chinese and the modern tropical Southeast Asians who are their offshoots.
As is also true of the three New Guinean-like relict populations that I mentioned in speaking of tropical Southeast Asia (Chapter 16), the Philippine Negritos could be relicts of populations ancestral to Wiwor’s people before they reached New Guinea.
Just three relict groups of hunter-gatherers--the Semang Negritos of the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islanders, and the Veddoid Negritos of Sri Lanka--remain to suggest that tropical Southeast Asia's former inhabitants may have been dark-skinned and curly-haired, like modern New Guineans and unlike the light-skinned, straight-haired South Chinese and the modern tropical Southeast Asians who are their offshoots.
The Canadian biologists who discovered a relict North American breeding band of the huge pongids in a remote valley west of Mount Jacobsen in British Columbia referred to them by the traditional name of Bigfoot and established the first refuge.