Fossil word

A fossil word is an obsolete word which remains in currency because it is contained within an idiom still in use.

It can also occur for phrases, such as in point ('relevant'), which is retained in the larger phrases case in point and in point of fact, but is not otherwise used outside of a legal context.

English language examples

• Ado, as in "without further ado" or "much ado about nothing"
• Amok, as in "run amok"
• Bandy, as in "bandy about" or "bandy-legged"
• Bated, as in "wait with bated breath"
• Batten, as in "batten down the hatches"
• Beck, as in "at one's beck and call"
• Bygones, as in "let bygones be bygones"
• Caboodle, as in "kit and caboodle"
• Coign, as in "coign of vantage"
• Deserts, as in "just deserts"
• Dint, as in "by dint of"
• Druthers, as in "if I had my druthers..."
• Dudgeon, as in "in high dudgeon"
• Eke, as in "eke out"
• Fettle, as in "in fine fettle"
• Fro, as in "to and fro"
• Immemorial, as in "time immemorial"
• Jetsam, as in "flotsam and jetsam"
• Ken, as in "beyond one's ken"
• Kith, as in "kith and kin"
• Loggerheads as in "at loggerheads" or loggerhead turtle
• Mettle, as in "test one's mettle"
• Neap, as in "neap tide"
• Offing, as in "in the offing"
• Petard, as in "hoisted by one's own petard"
• Shebang, as in "the whole shebang"
• Shrift, as in "short shrift"
• Sleight, as in "sleight of hand"
• Spick, as in "spick and span"
• Tarnation, as in "what in tarnation...?"
• Ulterior, as in "ulterior motives"
• Vicissitudes, as in "vicissitudes of life"
• Vim, as in "vim and vigor"
• Wreak, as in "wreak havoc"
• Wrought, as in "wrought iron"
• Yore, as in "days of yore"

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)
• Siamese twins (linguistics)