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A fossil word is a word that is broadly obsolete but remains in current use due to its presence within an idiom, word sense, or phrase. ^{[1] [2]} An example for a word sense is 'ado' in 'much ado'. An example for a phrase is ' in point' (relevant), which is retained in the larger phrases ' case in point' (also 'case on point' in the legal context) 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 ("make a to-do", "a big to-do", etc.)
• 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
• 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", ^[3] although the verb, 'to fettle', remains in specialized use in metal casting. ^[4]
• 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 ^[5]
• inclement, as in "inclement weather”
• jetsam, as in " flotsam and jetsam", except in legal contexts (especially admiralty, property, and international law)
• kith, as in " kith and kin" ^[6]
• lam, as in “on the lam”
• lo, as in "lo and behold"
• loggerheads as in " at loggerheads" ^[7] or loggerhead turtle
• muchness as in " much of a muchness"
• shebang, as in " the whole shebang", although the word is now used as an unrelated common noun in programmers' jargon. ^[8]
• shrive, preserved only in inflected forms occurring only as part of fixed phrases: 'shrift' in " short shrift" ^[9] and 'shrove' in " Shrove Tuesday"
• span and spick, as in " spick and span"
• turpitude, as in " moral turpitude"
• vim, as in " vim and vigor"
• wedlock, as in "out of wedlock"
• wend, as in "wend your way" ^[10]
• 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" (evolved from "kit and boodle", itself a fixed phrase borrowed as a unit from Dutch kitte en boedel)
• druthers, as in " if I had my druthers..." (formed by elision from "would rather" ^[11] and never occurring outside this phrase to begin with)
• tarnation, as in " what in tarnation...?" (evolved in the context of fixed phrases formed by mincing of previously fixed phrases that include the term "damnation")
• nother, as in " a whole nother..." (fixed phrase formed by rebracketing another as a nother, then inserting whole for emphasis; almost never occurs outside this phrase)

See also

• Bound morpheme
• Collocation — tendency of one word to occur near another
• Cranberry morpheme — morpheme which has no independent meaning in a lexeme
• Fossilization (linguistics)
• Irreversible binomial

References