Fossil word


A fossil word is a word that is broadly obsolete but remains in use due to its presence in an idiom or phrase. An example of a word is 'ado' in 'much ado'. An example of a phrase is 'in point', which is found in the phrases 'case in point' and 'in point of fact', but is rarely used outside of a legal context.

English-language examples

  • ado, as in "without further ado" or "with no further ado" or "much ado about nothing", although the homologous form "to-do" remains attested
  • amok, as in "run amok"
  • asunder, as in "torn asunder"
  • bandy, as in "bandy about" or "bandy-legged"
  • bated, as in "wait with bated breath", although the derived term "abate" remains in non-idiom-specific use
  • beck, as in "at one's beck and call", although the verb form "beckon" is still used in non-idiom-specific use
  • betide, as in "woe betide you/us/them"
  • bide, as in "bide your time"
  • champing, as in "champing at the bit", where "champ" is an obsolete precursor to "chomp", in current use
  • coign, as in "coign of vantage"
  • deserts, as in "just deserts", although singular "desert" in the sense of "state of deserving" occurs in nonidiom-specific contexts including law and philosophy. "Dessert" is a French loanword, meaning "removing what has been served," and has only a distant etymological connection.
  • dint, as in "by dint of"
  • dudgeon, as in "in high dudgeon"
  • eke, as in "eke out"
  • fettle, as in "in fine fettle", although the verb, 'to fettle', remains in specialized use in metal casting.
  • fro, as in "to and fro"
  • goodly, as in "goodly number"
  • helter skelter, as in "scattered helter-skelter about the office", Middle English skelten to hasten
  • inclement, as in "inclement weather”
  • jetsam, as in "flotsam and jetsam", except in legal contexts
  • kith, as in "kith and kin"
  • lam, as in “on the lam”
  • lo, as in "lo and behold"
  • loggerheads as in "at loggerheads" or loggerhead turtle
  • madding as in "far from the madding crowd"
  • math, as in "aftermath"
  • muchness as in "much of a muchness"
  • ne'er, as in "ne'er-do-well"
  • scot, as in "scot free"
  • sleight, as in "sleight of hand"
  • shebang, as in "the whole shebang", although the word is now used as an unrelated common noun in programmers' jargon.
  • shrive, preserved only in inflected forms occurring only as part of fixed phrases: 'shrift' in "short shrift" and 'shrove' in "Shrove Tuesday"
  • span and spick, as in "spick and span"
  • turpitude, as in "moral turpitude"
  • vim, as in "vim and vigor", though preserved as the name of a scouring powder
  • wedlock, as in "out of wedlock"
  • wend, as in "wend your way", although its former past tense "went" is still in use as the past tense of "to go"
  • wreak, as in "wreak havoc"
  • yore, as in "of yore", usually "days of yore"

    "Born fossils"

These words were formed from other languages, by elision, or by mincing of other fixed phrases.
  • caboodle, as in "kit and caboodle"
  • druthers, as in "if I had my druthers..."
  • tarnation, as in "what in tarnation...?"
  • nother, as in "a whole nother..."