Relict
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Look up relict in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
The term relict is used to refer to surviving remnants of natural phenomena.
- In biology a relict 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 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 Historical linguistics, a relict is a word that is a survivor of a form or forms that are otherwise archaic.
- A relict was also an ancient term for a widow, but has come to be a generic or collective term for widows and widowers.
