fossiln.adj.

Brit.

/ˈfɒsl/, U.S.

/ˈfɑs(ə)l/

Forms: 1500s focille, 1600s–1700s fosile, 1600s–1700s fossel, 1600s–1700s fossile, 1600s–1700s fossill, 1600s– fossil.

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French fossile.

Etymology: < Middle French, French fossile (adjective) (of a mineral) that can be extracted from the earth (1556), (in geological use) fossilized, petrified (1732), old, out of date (1827), (noun) kind of fish formerly believed to live in water underground (1566 as focille in the passage translated in quot. 1569 at sense A. 1), petrified organism (1732), person who is out of date (1833) < classical Latin fossilis obtained by digging (in post-classical Latin also as noun fossilia , neuter plural: see fossilia n.) < foss- , past participial stem of fodere to dig (see fodient adj.) + -ilis -il suffix. Compare Italian fossile (adjective) that can be extracted from the earth (16th or 17th cent.), (noun) mineral substance (1565), petrified organism (1750). Compare earlier fossilia n.

A. n.

†1. = fossil fish n. (a) at Compounds 2. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > fish > [noun] > defined by habitat > supposed to live in water underground

fossil1569

fossil fish1652

1569 E. Fenton tr. P. Boaistuau Certaine Secrete Wonders Nature f. 50^v The auncient Philosophers affirme, that there haue bene founde fishes vnder the earth, who (for that cause) they called Focilles [Fr. focilles].

†a. A rock or mineral substance, or an object composed of this, dug out of the earth. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > minerals > [noun] > mineral substance

mineral?a1425

body1594

fossil1606

mineraloid1913

society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > mineral material > [noun]

fossil1606

society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [noun] > digging or excavating > something dug out

fossil1606

1606 T. Palmer Ess. Meanes to make Trauailes more Profitable ii. 84 Of things hid in the veines and wombe of the earth..namely, the Mines of mettals and Fossiles whereof there are such sundrie species.

1619 H. Hutton Follie's Anat. sig. B5^v So that he seemes as if black Vulcans art, Of diuerse fossiles had compil'd each part.

1668 H. Oldenburg Let. 14 Apr. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) IV. 66 The fossils, most to be met with in the Contry of liege, are Cadmia, Alum, chalcanthum viride, ferrum, plumbum, and stibium.

1744 G. Berkeley Siris (ESTC T72826) §23 Its being dug out of the earth shews it to be a fossil.

1799 Scotl. Descr. (ed. 2) 15 An infinite diversity of minerals and other fossils.

1807 J. Headrick View Mineral. Arran 58 I could not find any solid rock of that fossil [sc. pitchstone].

1817 Trans. Geol. Soc. 4 413 These singular fossils..are known at Belfast by the name of Paramoudra.

b. Something preserved in the ground, esp. in petrified form in rock, and recognizable as the remains of a living organism of a former geological period, or as preserving an impression or trace of such an organism.guide, molecular, trace fossil, etc.: see the first element.Fossils are typically hard parts, such as bones, teeth, shells, or wood, which have been rapidly buried in sediment. This is followed by the petrifaction of their constituent materials (or the replacement or recrystallization of mineral components, as in fossil shells), or the preservation of a mould or cast of the organism's exterior or interior form as the surrounding material turns to rock. Trace fossils represent remnants of the activity of living organisms, such as burrows or footprints. Rarely, fossils of such insubstantial organisms as jellyfish are preserved in fine-grained rocks such as shales, or entire organisms may be preserved frozen, or embedded in amber or tar.Conventionally, the term fossil is usually reserved for remains older than 10,000 years, i.e. dating from before the end of the last glacial period. (Later remains may be called subfossil; cf. also mummy n.¹ 6a.)Fossils provide important evidence for the accurate dating of rock strata, and they have provided much of the information upon which the present subdivisions of the geological timescale are based.It is unclear whether quot. 1707 is an example of this sense or of sense A. 2a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [noun]

remains1705

fossil1736

medal of creation1804

death assemblage1953

1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening xii. 296 When a Plant petrifies, it degenerates by degrading it self to the Rank of Fossiles.]

1736 P. Collinson Let. 12 Mar. in J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 25 What are called fossils—being stones..that have either the impressions, or else the regular form of shells leaves, fishes, fungi [etc.].

1765 Philos. Trans. 1764 (Royal Soc.) 54 39 It may indeed be thought unnecessary at this time, to say any thing of the origin of extraneous Fossils in general; all our modern naturalists being fully convinced, that they are the exuviæ or remains of animals and vegetables, and the greater part of them of marine production.

1777 E. Jacob Plantæ Favershamienses 143 The chambered Nautilus, is a common Fossil of these Cliffs.

1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) II. xvi. 100 He regarded fossils as the real remains of plants and animals which had been buried in the strata.

1890 Philos. Trans. 1889 (Royal Soc.) B. 180 259 The bone may well be an inter-clavicle, and the fossil would probably be a Pareiasaurian.

1920 A. M. Davies Introd. Palaeontol. xii. 354 The subject of the nomenclature, or naming of fossils, is one productive of much irritation and of many sarcastic utterances among geologists.

1936 Osiris 2 108 S. H. Scudder..described hundreds of insect fossils from the new and rich beds in the United States.

1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxxii. 330 I began to form a collection of marine fossils, some of them found high above the level of the sea.

2006 D. H. Erwin Extinction iii. 73 Conodonts are tiny, jagged, toothlike fossils made of calcium phosphate and common in rocks from the Ordovician through the Triassic.

a. figurative. A person or thing that is old or out of date, esp. a person who has lost the capacity for emotion or personal development or fails to absorb new ideas, practices, etc.Frequently with prefixed defining adjective old.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > change > absence of change, changelessness > maintaining state or condition > [noun] > opponent of change

Tory1712

old school1749

conservatist1831

conservative1832

fossil1844

mossback1873

stand-patter1902

old school tie1920

passéist1921

pastist1921

auntie1953

old schooler1964

Luddite1970

the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [noun] > old-fashionedness > something that is old-fashioned

fogramity1796

fossil1844

back number1882

vieux jeu1896

dinosaur1899

Model T1909

old hat1911

throwback1923

museum piece1928

geriatric1977

1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. in Lect. in Wks. (1906) II. 300 Government has been a fossil; it should be a plant.

a1855 C. Brontë Professor (1857) I. iv. 64 When a man endures patiently what ought to be unendurable, he is a fossil.

1857 H. Melville Confidence-man xxii. 161 The working or serving man, shall be a buried by-gone, a superseded fossil.

c1899 E. A. Hyde Engaged Girl ii. 12 And he's such an old fossil—must be sixty at least!

1942 P. Sturges Great Moment in Four More Screenplays (1995) 398 However he may feel personally, the President of the United States must always conduct himself like an old fossil.

1986 D. Koontz Strangers i. ii. 138 Now even a burnt-out old fossil like me would turn away such a lovely girl as you.

2002 J. Eugenides Middlesex iii. 283 Dr. Phil was becoming a fossil. For my annual physical in 1972 he used diagnostic methods popular back in medical school in 1910.

b. Linguistics. A word or other linguistic form which has become obsolete except in isolated regions or in set phrases, idioms, or collocations.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > other specific types of word

hard word1533

household word1574

magic word1581

grandam words1598

signal word1645

book worda1670

wordie1718

my whole1777

foundling1827–38

keyword1827

Mesopotamia1827

thought-word1844

word-symbol1852

nursery word1853

pivot word1865

rattler1865

object word1876

pillow word1877

nonce-word1884

non-word1893

fossil1901

blessed word1910

bogy-word1919

catch-all1922

pseudo-word1929

false friend1931

plus word1939

descriptor1946

meta-word1952

discourse marker1967

shrub2008

1901 J. B. Greenough & G. L. Kittredge Words & their Ways in Eng. Speech xv. 195 English abounds in such fossils... Sometimes a word or a meaning has become obsolete except in an idiom or two.

1931 G. O. Curme Syntax xxiii. 456 The simple infinitive survives as a fossil in various categories.

1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 118 There is a rising doubt that the linguistic fossils he discovered in large numbers are really inherited..from Elizabethan England.

2000 Oceanic Linguistics 39 299 This prefix survives only as a fossil in the Berawan dialects, but evidently was still present at the time the rule of intervocalic devoicing was innovated.

B. adj. Chiefly attributive.

1. Obtained by digging; found buried in the earth. Now chiefly of fuels and other materials occurring naturally in underground deposits; esp. in fossil fuel n.Used (esp. formerly) in names of mineral substances considered to resemble organic products, as fossil cork, meal, paper, etc.: see Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [adjective] > dug or excavated > obtained by digging

fossil1652

1652 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 213 That sometimes fishes are digged out of the earth, which we may call Fossil, to distinguish them from aquatile, is recorded by grave and ancient Writers.

1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ (1681) 25 Lime, Chalk, Marle, or any cold fossile Soils, are an extraordinary Improvement to dry, sandy, hot Lands.

1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 101 Fossile Dice, which they say they dig out of the Earth.

1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 269 All fossil Salts, as Sea-Salt, Rock-Salt, &c.

1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 196 This is true likewise of the fossil-pitch of Coal-Brookdale.

1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 354 Fossil coal, and..bitumen, contain a large quantity of carbon.

1871 F. von Mueller in E. Cooper Forest Culture & Eucalyptus Trees (1876) 88 For many industrial purposes charcoal is far preferable to fossil coal.

1931 Jrnl. Farm Econ. 13 477 The fossil phosphates (phosphorates, e.g., American slate, which is 60 to 80 per cent pure phosphate lime) are generously and widely distributed.

1966 G. E. Fussell Eng. Dairy Farmer ii. 83 Lime, chalk, marl, or any fossil soil on dry, sandy land was advantageous.

1991 R. S. K. Barnes & K. H. Mann Fund. Aquatic Ecol. (ed. 2) vii. 110/2 Recent studies of..atmospheric methane indicate that most of it originated from recent biological activity, for it contains considerable amounts of carbon-14, while fossil methane contains only tiny amounts of this isotope.

a. Designating petrified remains or other traces of living organisms preserved in the earth, esp. in the strata of past geological periods; that is a fossil (sense A. 2b), fossilized. Hence (of organisms): known only in the form of fossils, dating from a past geological period.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [adjective]

fossil1665

subfossil1829

anaerobic1878

anaerobian1879

anaerobious1884

anaerobiotic1885

1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 111 Of Fossile wood and Coals.

1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 252 The fossil Shells are many of them of the same kinds with those that now appear upon the neighbouring Shores.

1749 Philos. Trans. 1748 (Royal Soc.) 45 321 Its Shape bespeaks it to be a Species of Nautilus; and it is thought to be a Non-descript, both in its natural and fossil State.

1759 Philos. Trans. 1758 (Royal Soc.) 50 688 The fossill Bones of an Alligator found..near Whitby.

1809 W. Nicholson Brit. Encycl. V. at Oryctology The elephant whose remains have been found in America, the tooth of which differs essentially from all known fossil or recent species.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 101 The fossil ferns, equiseta, and other plants of the coal strata.

1851 G. F. Richardson Geol. (1855) 397 A mass of bituminous earth..containing numerous trunks of fossil trees, standing erect at a height of from one to three feet.

1863 T. H. Huxley Evid. Man's Place Nature 159 The fossil remains of man..do not..take us appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid form.

1925 Amer. Hist. Rev. 30 618 The Fossil Foot-prints of the Connecticut Valley.

1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) 526 Pteridophytes (e.g., ferns)..assume some importance in the fossil forests, especially of the great Coal Age (Pennsylvanian).

1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) iii. 40 Jawless vertebrates, such as the living lampreys and fossil relatives.

1993 Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 102 327 There is type material of 50 avian nominal taxa (of which 12 are fossil) in the South African Museum.

2004 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 37 69 No genuinely fossil human bones were found in the British gravel.

b. Chiefly Physical Geography and Astronomy. In extended use: designating traces or remnants of physical features, phenomena, etc., which have survived from the distant past.

ΚΠ

1860 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1857–60 4 271 Several hypotheses have been proposed, to account for the existence of this bed of frozen gravel; such as its being, perhaps, a fossil glacier of a period of intense cold, during the drift epoch.

1885 G. K. Gilbert in 5th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. 1883–4 123 Wherever the surveyor's level has been applied to a fossil shore, it has been found that the ‘horizon’ of the latter departs notably from horizontality.

1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. x. 113 In fossil deltas, it is often difficult to prove that such oscillations of sea-level and interdigitations have occurred.

1979 B. M. French in O. Davis Omni Bk. of Space 208 What produced the unexpected ‘fossil magnetism’ detected in lunar rocks although the moon has no magnetic fields?

2001 N.Y. Times 1 July i. 18/3 The oldest light in the universe,..created within moments of the Big Bang... The probe will construct four full-sky pictures of this so-called fossil light.

a. figurative. Preserved unchanged by surrounding alterations; belonging to a previous period or era. Also: (derogatory) incapable of change or development; out of date, antiquated.

ΘΚΠ

the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > old-fashioned or antiquated

moth-frettenOE

antiquate?a1425

antique?1532

rusty1549

moth-eaten1551

musty1575

worm-eatenc1575

overyear1584

out of date1589

old-fashioned1592

out of date1592

worm-eat1597

old-fashion1599

ancient1601

outdated1616

out-of-fashion1623

over-aged1623

superannuateda1634

thorough-old1639

overdateda1641

trunk-hosea1643

antiquitated1645

antiquated1654

out-of-fashioned1671

unmodern1731

of the old school1749

auld-farrant1750

old-fangled1764

fossila1770

fogram1772

passé1775

unmodernized1775

oxidated1791

moss-covered1792

square-toeda1797

old-fashionable1807

pigtail1817

behind the times1826

slow1827

fossilized1828

rococo1836

antiquish1838

old-timey1850

out of season1850

moss-grown1851

old style1858

antiqued1859

pigtaily1859

prehistoric1859

backdated1862

played1864

fossiled1866

bygone1869

mossy-backed1870

old-worldly1878

past-time1889

outmoded1896

dated1900

brontosaurian1909

antiquey1926

horse-and-buggy1926

vintage1928

Neolithic1934

time-warped1938

demoded1941

steam age1941

hairy1946

old school1946

rinky-dink1946

time warp1954

Palaeolithic1957

retardataire1958

throwback1968

wally1969

antwacky1975

the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > old-fashioned or antiquated > of persons, views, etc.

old-fashioned1596

musty1603

mildewed1605

fusty1609

wormy1611

frumpy1746

fossila1770

arriéré1814

has-been1819

Rip Van Winkleish1829

frumpish1847

archaistic1850

fogey1852

fogeyish1852

old fogeyish1853

rusty-fusty1864

mossbacked1876

dead-handed1928

Victorian1934

unhep1939

unhip1939

dinosaurian1943

square1946

dinosaur-like1947

dinosauric1977

analogue1993

the world > time > change > absence of change, changelessness > maintaining state or condition > [adjective] > incapable of progress

fossilized1828

fossil1859

a1770 T. Chatterton Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 546 By Birth to Prejudice and Whim ally'd And heavy with hereditary Pride He modell'd Pleasure by a Fossil rule And spent his youth to prove himself a Fool.

1820 E. Elliott Peter Faultless 220 But Hal alone is, in the genuine sense, A specimen of fossil impudence, Worthy of everlasting preservation, To edify each future generation.

1841–4 R. W. Emerson Poet in Wks. (1906) I. 162 Language is fossil poetry.

1859 T. Parker in J. Weiss Life & Corr. T. Parker (1863) II. 103 The Pope is a fossil ruler, pre-mediæval.

1877 E. R. Conder Basis of Faith i. 34 The fossil impression of a dead faith.

1894 Ld. Rosebery in Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar. 5/2 Those fossil politicians—for there is a fossil Radicalism as well as a fossil Toryism.

1951 W. Lewis Rotting Hill vii. 236 This shadow of a Gemot, like the ‘constitutional monarchy’ and numerous other fossil institutions..cannot be denied a talismanic usefulness.

1996 J. Lanchester Debt to Pleasure (1997) 66 My father would take out a mortifyingly dilapidated grey woollen two-piece outfit, a fossil ancestor of the modern tracksuit.

b. Linguistics. Of a word, a linguistic form, etc.: that has become obsolete except in isolated regions or in set phrases, idioms, or collocations.

ΚΠ

1872 Notes & Queries 10 Aug. 104/1 We see, then, that this fossil word ‘-hoe’ rather indicates a social condition than a natural feature of the locality.

1879 J. Fraser Etruscans (title page) The light of an inductive philology, thrown on forty Etruscan fossil-words, preserved to us by ancient authors.

1905 Amer. Anthropologist 7 283 There is a fossil word pāt, whose proper meaning is uncertain, the word occurring only in the vocable junpāt.

1908 O. Heller in R. Baumbach Der Schwiegersohn 100 In Treuen, a fossil inflected dat. sing. of Treue, f.

1971 W. E. Bull Time, Tense, & Verb iii. 37 The frequency of the fossil form éramos..is high enough to preserve it.

Compounds

C1. Compounds of the noun.

(a) General attributive.

ΚΠ

1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. p. xxiii The Animal, the Vegetable, and the Fossil or Mineral Kingdom.

1842 H. Miller Old Red Sandstone (ed. 2) ii. 59 The labours of these two great men in fossil ichthyology.

1855 E. Forbes Lit. Papers vi. 166 There should..be a concordance in the arrangements of the recent and fossil collections.

1902 New Phytologist 1 209 The whole of the extensive fossil evidence supports the direct derivation of the medullate stele..from protostelic structure.

1936 Jrnl. Paleontol. 10 267/2 A study of several fossil collections from Osage strata of the southern Ozarks.

1972 K. S. Valdiya & V. J. Gupta in A. G. Jhingran et al. Himalayan Geol. II. 1 New fossil finds in the Kali and Kuti valleys in northeastern Kumaun.

1989 A. Walker Temple of my Familiar iii. 221 T. took me round the fossil cases and past the humanoid drawings..of mankind on his wearisome way up the evolutionary spiral.

2003 Independent 23 Jan. 4/1 A team..discovered six specimens of the species in the rich fossil beds of China's Liaoning Province.

(b) Objective.

fossil-bearing adj.

ΚΠ

1834 A. Hawkins Picture of Quebec xx. 446 The horizontal fossil bearing strata of Beauport..is really conceived to be carboniferous limestone.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1134 Before the next great fossil-bearing strata, the Cretaceous rocks, a revolution in the plant world had taken place.

2005 M. Bjornerud Reading Rocks ii. 52 Most fossil-bearing layers are death assemblages—marine morgues.

fossil-collecting adj. and n.

ΚΠ

1855 W. S. Symonds Old Stones ii. 76 My object in recommending this spot to my fossil-collecting friends is, that they may at one journey enrich their cabinets.

1862 Recreative Sci. 3 186/1 By no means let your companion or companions be..opposed to geology and to fossil collecting.

1996 Lapidary Jrnl. Aug. 88/1 There is still one kind of rockhounding you may want to try: fossil collecting.

2009 Contra Costa (Calif.) Times (Nexis) 22 Jan. The adventure tale revolves around an 8-year-old girl and her fossil-collecting 10-year-old brother.

fossil collector n.

ΚΠ

1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. v. 76 No sum of money would enable the fossil collector to complete such a set.

1915 Washington Post 21 Feb. (Misc. section) 4/6 The fossil collectors set themselves to find out how far in both directions the remains run.

2002 Independent 24 May 8/5 The fossil-bearing rocks..have almost been totally ‘worked out’ as a result of a German fossil collector.

fossil hunter n.

ΚΠ

1823 G. Roberts Hist. Lyme Regis 128 The infant was not injured, but from that time..became very intelligent, and, as a fossil-hunter, was destined to bring to light some of the grandest relics of a primæval world.

1909 C. H. Sternberg (title) The life of a fossil hunter.

2006 C. Stringer Homo Britannicus Introd. 46 Charles Dawson, a solicitor and amateur fossil hunter.

fossil-hunting n. and adj.

ΚΠ

1840 W. Bilton Two Summers in Norway II. 204 I staid there several days, and saw enough to convince me that there are a hundred spots as favourable for fossil hunting, as those that have acquired a name.

1847 E. L. Blanchard Heads & Tales of Travellers & Travelling ii. 24 The fossil-hunting Bucklands and Murchisons of a future day.

1993 Time Out 31 Mar. 146/4 The 1920s expedition of the great fossil-hunting explorer Roy Chapman Andrews.

2003 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 36 480/1 Fossil-hunting was of particular interest in late sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century Rome.

fossil botanist n. = palaeobotanist n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > botany > [noun] > specific branches or aspects of botany > one knowledgeable in

fossil botanist1832

phytogeographer1859

palaeophytologist1869

neo-botanist1870

palaeobotanist1876

phytopalaeontologist1882

plant geographer1883

phytopathologist1886

plant physiologist1888

plant pathologist1894

phytoecologist1899

phytochemist1914

phytosociologist1926

astrobotanist1952

archaeobotanist1954

1832 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 13 227 When leaves are small and are densely imbricated, they are generally considered by fossil botanists to belong to either Lycopodiaceæ, or Coniferæ.

1963 Biogr. Mem. Fellows Royal Soc. 9 295 Thus Thomas moved from being a fossil botanist to a botanical philosopher.

fossil botany n. = palaeobotany n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > botany > [noun] > specific branches or aspects of botany

phytognomy1643

topology1659

vegetable statics1691

cryptogamy1783

fossil botany1822

nomology1825

structural botany1835

phytochemistry1837

phytochimy1847

phytogeography1847

astrobotany1851

phytonomy1851

phytophysiology1854

palaeophytology1857

phytobiology1860

phytopathology1864

plant physiology1870

palaeobotany1872

plant geography1878

phytopalaeontology1879

plant pathology1891

ethnobotany1896

floristic1898

phyteconomy1898

phytoteratology1898

phytoecology1899

geobotany1904

phytosociology1917

archaeobotany1954

palaeoethnobotany1959

1822 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening ii. i. 124 Fossil botany, as studied from the impressions of plants found in the secondary strata of the earth, has only lately begun to attract attention.

a1911 J. D. Hooker in Science (1919) 6 June 527 My work is fossil botany; as legitimate a branch of Botany as is muscology.

1986 Systematic Bot. 11 19/2 The collection of papers..represents a solid contribution to our knowledge of fossil botany.

C2. Compounds of the adjective.

fossil copal n. [probably after French copal fossile (1812 or earlier)] old or partially mineralized copal resin found in the ground, esp. on the coast in Africa and elsewhere.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > hydrocarbon minerals > [noun] > resins > copalite

fossil copal1815

copalite1868

1815 A. Aikin Man. Mineral. (ed. 2) 64 Fossil Copal. Highgate Resin. Colour light yellowish dirty brown.

1883 Official Catal. Internat. Fisheries Exhib. (ed. 4) 118 Collection of Anime Fossil Copal, from the beach of the east coast of Africa.

1916 C. F. Woods in L. S. Marks Mech. Engineers' Handbk. vi. 627 Ambroin is an insulating material made from fossil copal and silicates by a special process.

a1990 Z. Volavka Crown & Ritual (1998) iii. 89 Although they certainly knew that it is collected at the foot of the tree, several of my informants insisted that pieces of fossil copal fall from heaven.

† fossil cork n. [after French liège fossile (1764 or earlier)] Obsolete a variety of asbestos occurring in thick, light, flexible blocks; mountain cork.

ΚΠ

1771 J. Keir in tr. P. J. Macquer Dict. Chem. I. 179/2 (note) Cork (Fossil), Suber montanum. This name is given to a stone which is a species of amianthus, consisting of flexible fibres loosely interwoven, and somewhat resembling vegetable cork.

1818 J. Souter Bk. Eng. Trades (new ed.) 126 Fossil-cork, is the name given to a kind of stone, which is the lightest of all stones.

fossil farina n. [after French farine fossile (1763 or earlier)] now rare = fossil flour n.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > earth > [noun] > infusorial earth

tripoli1601

fossil flour1788

fossil farina1789

terra cariosa1823

kieselguhr1875

diatomite1887

moler1910

the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > silicates > miscellaneous silicates > [noun] > diatomite

fossil flour1788

fossil farina1789

terra cariosa1823

kieselguhr1875

diatomite1887

moler1910

1789 W. Radcliffe tr. K. I. Hablitz Nat. Hist. E. Tartary i. 23 We also find, here and there, the calcareous fossil Farina.

1827 Mechanics' Mag. 10 Nov. 260/2 The carbonated pulverulent lime, which Fabbreni discovered in Tuscany; of which he manufactured his floating bricks, and to which he gave the name of fossil farina.

1899 H. C. Pearson Crude Rubber v. 69 Fossil Farina, also called mountain milk, is an earth similar to infusorial earth.

1954 Rev. Appl. Entomol. A. 42 36 In further experiments on the protection of stored grain by dusting with fossil farina.., it was found that 0.2 per cent. of this material gives excellent protection.

fossil fish n. †(a) a fish formerly supposed to live in water underground (obsolete); (b) a fossilized fish; an extinct fish existing only as fossils.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > fish > [noun] > defined by habitat > supposed to live in water underground

fossil1569

fossil fish1652

1652 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 213 Where these Fossil fishes are found, there are subterraneall waters not farre off, by which they are conveyed thither.

1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) 69 As for Fossil Fishes, some make their way into the Earth up the Veins of Water opening into the Banks of Rivers, where they lie till they grow so great that they cannot return.

1785 W. Smellie tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Gen. & Particular (ed. 2) IX. 303 Many other fossil fishes and shells, which no longer have any living representative, existed only in those primitive times when the earth and sea were still warm.

1845 N. Brit. Rev. 3 494 In all the families up to the commencement of the Cretaceous, there were almost no fossil fishes but Placoids and Ganoids.

1928 G. H. Wilkins Undiscovered Austral. 115 A fossil fish porphyrized and shining.

2000 H. Gee Deep Time ii. 46 My favourite gallery was one of the least visited—the Hall of Fossil Fishes.

† fossil flax n. Obsolete a variety of asbestos; cf. earth flax n. at earth n.¹ Compounds 8b.

ΚΠ

1748 L. Morris Plans Harbours, Bays & Roads in St. George's Channel 4/1 It is mentioned by Pliny..and others; who say, the Antients made Cloth of this Fossil Flax.

1811 R. Fenton Tour Quest Geneal. 230 The linum asbestinum, a kind of fossil flax, found in the stone asbestos, of which they say there is a quarry in Anglesea.

1859 D. Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 77 In fossil-flax they [sc. the fibres] are so loose and silky that Dolomieu used it for packing his other minerals.

fossil flour n. [after French farine fossile (see fossil farina n.)] diatomaceous earth, kieselguhr, or a similar material.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > earth > [noun] > infusorial earth

tripoli1601

fossil flour1788

fossil farina1789

terra cariosa1823

kieselguhr1875

diatomite1887

moler1910

the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > silicates > miscellaneous silicates > [noun] > diatomite

fossil flour1788

fossil farina1789

terra cariosa1823

kieselguhr1875

diatomite1887

moler1910

1788 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. I. ii. i. 257 Genus I. Calcareous Earths... Species III. In powder. Variety. Fossil Flour [Fr. Farine fossile].

1819 H. McMurtrie Sketches of Louisville 42 Here also may be found what the French mineralogists have denominated fossil flour, of a reddish brown colour.

1915 R. P. Clarkson Pract. Talks Farm Engin. v. 40 In another composition flooring..the specific materials are..25 parts of infusorial earth or fossil flour.

1995 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 24 Oct. e1 Diatomaceous earth (a.k.a. fossil flour) may be mixed into pet food..as a de-wormer.

fossil ivory n. ivory from the tusks of dead mammoths, mastodons, or elephants preserved in the ground.

ΚΠ

1728 Philos. Trans. 1726–7 (Royal Soc.) 34 514 A remarkable Piece of Fossil Ivory, or rather of an Elephant's Tooth.

1875 W. Maskell Ivories 2 Another kind of real ivory—the fossil ivory.

2006 C. Stringer Homo Britannicus Introd. 24 Buckland argued that it was the skeleton of a woman dating from Roman times, whose fellow tribesmen had dug up fossil ivory from the cave floor.

fossil meal n. = fossil flour n.

ΚΠ

1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. I. 665/2 Fossil-meal, otherwise called lac lune, mineral argaric, and guhr, is, according to M. Fabbroni, a mixed earth, which..is abundant in Tuscany, where it is employed for cleaning plate.

1883 Cassell's Family Mag. Dec. 62/2 ‘Fossil meal’ is the name given to a composition..used for coating steam pipes and boilers.

1927 M. L. Hartmann in E. W. Washburn et al. Internat. Crit. Tables Numerical Data II. 86/1 Diatomaceous earth (infusorial earth, kieselguhr, fossil flour, fossil meal, [etc.]).

1994 Ceramic Industry (Nexis) Jan. 16 Refractory products in staging category A are in harmonized code 6903, which contains other refractory goods..other than those of siliceous fossil meals or of similar siliceous earths.

fossil ore n. chiefly U.S. (now rare) a fossiliferous form of haematite.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > minerals > ore > [noun] > metal ore > iron ore > others

bloodstone1504

haematite1543

yellow share1590

keel1596

brush-ore1678

mush1686

brush-iron-ore1695

iron glance1792

specular iron (also iron ore)1796

steel-ore1796

oligistc1803

black band1811

old man1811

spathose iron-ore1823

pitticite1826

siderose1834

blink klip1835

pharmacosiderite1835

sphaerosiderite1837

fossil ore1846

jacutinga1846

vignite1846

siderite1848

junckerite1865

needle iron-ore1867

xanthosiderite1868

specularite1892

pitch ore1896

minette1902

taconite1905

1846 Fisher's National Mag. 1 441 An ore lying on the eastern flank of Wills' Mountain [Maryland]... From the great abundance of marine fossils in this ore, it has come to take the name of fossil ore.

1896 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 5 31 The Clinton fossil ores (red hematite)..now constitute the bulk of the ore mined in this district.

1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) xiii. 137 This iron ore..is often highly fossiliferous, hence the name ‘fossil ore’.

† fossil paper n. [probably after French papier fossile (1764 or earlier); compare earlier mountain paper at mountain n. and adj. Compounds 2b(b)] Obsolete a variety of asbestos occurring as thin, flexible sheets.

ΚΠ

1805 S. Weston Werneria I. 33 Suber Montanum, mountain cork, or membranaceous asbestos,..or fossil paper, floats commonly on water.

1890 R. H. Jones Asbestos i. 15 Mountain Paper is..a papery-looking sub-variety of asbestos, sometimes called fossil paper.

fossil record n. Palaeontology a series or sequence of fossils which, dated in correlation with the strata in which they are found, provide material evidence of evolutionary or geological history, esp. that of a particular group of organisms, a region, etc. (in quot. 1863, with the general sense of ‘fossil evidence’, and not a fixed collocation).

ΚΠ

1863 Continental Monthly Jan. 80/1 The earliest fossil record of animal life is witness to the simplicity of organic structure.]

1877 N.Y. Times 29 Sept. 3/3 He [sc. Joseph Leconte] requires the admission of a more rapid rate of evolution of life on the globe during critical periods, in order to account for the breaks that occur in the fossil record of life at certain points of the grand chain.

1880 Science 18 Sept. 141/2 The sea-urchins,..with a comparatively complete fossil record, offer a tempting field for speculation.

1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. xiii. 306 Thus in the fossil record a succession of types is really visible, and the succession is definitely one of lower by higher types.

2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life ii. iii. 151 Many [red seaweeds] acquire a coating of calcium carbonate (which is one reason why their fossil record is so good).

fossil screw n. now rare any of various invertebrate fossils having a spiral or furrowed cylindrical structure, such as a gastropod columella or the stalk of a crinoid or sponge.

ΚΠ

1838 C. Lyell Elements Geol. iv. 80 Thus a cast such as a, Fig. 54., commonly called a fossil screw, would never be suspected by an inexperienced conchologist to be the internal shape of the fossil univalve.

1912 C. S. Prosser Devonian & Mississippian Formations Northeastern Ohio iv. 331 What Mr. Lampson called a ‘fossil screw’ was found in the second sandstone from the top, probably a specimen of a Dictyophyton.

1951 G. W. Himus & G. S. Sweeting Elem. Field Geol. ii. xv. 200 Lengths of fossil crinoid stems are sometimes described by quarrymen as fossil screws.

fossil water n. †(a) (English regional) a white or colourless translucent mineral forming crystals or veins in rock (obsolete); (b) water that has been confined in an aquifer, glacier, etc., for a very long period of time (thousands or millions of years) and hence is not renewable; cf. connate adj. 5.

ΚΠ

1849 H. M. Lee in N. Walker & T. Craddock Hist. Wisbech 542 Nodules of blue argillaceous limestone, which are often traversed by fissures or cracks filled with calcareous spar, commonly called ‘fossil water’.

1882 W. J. Harrison Geol. Counties Eng. iii. 16 Semi-transparent glassy crystals of selenite, called ‘fossil water’ by the workmen.

1902 Geol. Mag. 9 560 Such washing-out of the original ‘fossil’ water may have taken place anywhere.

1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 60/2 Most of this water is fossil water gathered after the last ice age, when the Sahara must have been a tropical region with heavy rainfall.

2005 Windsor Star (Ont.) (Nexis) 26 Dec. a12 The shrinkage of the glaciers is well-documented... ‘That's fossil water, and when it's gone, it's gone.’

fossil wax n. [After French cire fossile (1833), itself probably after German Erdwachs (see earth wax n. at earth n.¹ Compounds 8b).] = mineral wax n. at mineral adj. Compounds 1.

ΚΠ

1834 London & Edinb. Philos. Mag. 5 316 Fossil wax of Moldavia. By M. Magnus. This substance is evidently a mixture of several different matters.

1868 J. D. Dana Syst. Mineral. (ed. 5) 733 Zietrisikite... The almost complete insolubility of this fossil wax in ether distinguishes it decisively from ozocerite.

1960 Stud. in Consvervation 5 79/1 Crude montan wax, a fossil wax, is important for the production of half-synthetic or synthetic waxes... This wax is extracted from lignite.

fossil wood n. fossilized or petrified wood; mineralized or compacted wood found in the earth; (formerly also) †a mineral substance resembling wood (obsolete).

ΚΠ

1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 111 Of Fossile wood and Coals.

1788 J. Hutton Theory Earth 234 In other specimens of this mineralizing operation, fossil wood..has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty substance.

1856 A. M. Murray Lett. from U.S. 295 We soon came to the petrified forest, which is said to be ten miles in extent. I found fine specimens of fossil-wood, whole trunks of trees.

1904 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 78 Taxoxylon Philpii..represents the first taxaceous fossil wood from Queensland.

1997 Rec. W. Austral. Mus. 18 263 Fossil wood associated with the pliosaurs contains..bivalve borings and hyphae of saprophytic fungi.

† fossil wool n. Obsolete a fibrous variety of asbestos.

ΚΠ

1859 D. Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 170 Fossil-Paper, Fossil-Wool,..familiar terms applied to certain varieties of amianthus.

1892 M. P. Bale Pumps & Pumping (ed. 2) i. 19 The author has found slag wool, thick hair felt lagged with wool, and fossil wool all answer well for pipe coverings.

Derivatives

ˈfossil-like adj.

ΚΠ

1806 J. Sowerby Brit. Mineral. II. 167 The state in which we find very rotten wood sometimes above ground,..with an earthy, fossil-like appearance.

1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. i. 61 Long-forgotten strata of society which our fossil-like records reveal to us.

1970 R. P. Stearns Sci. Brit. Colonies Amer. i. 10 Stones also included all fossils and fossil-like substances.

2005 Manly (Austral.) Daily (Nexis) 22 Oct. The price of concert tickets to watch some fossil-like overseas act squeeze out a ‘farewell tour’ before saying goodbye again a year later.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	fossil
释义	fossiln.adj. Brit. /ˈfɒsl/, U.S. /ˈfɑs(ə)l/ Forms: 1500s focille, 1600s–1700s fosile, 1600s–1700s fossel, 1600s–1700s fossile, 1600s–1700s fossill, 1600s– fossil. Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French fossile. Etymology: < Middle French, French fossile (adjective) (of a mineral) that can be extracted from the earth (1556), (in geological use) fossilized, petrified (1732), old, out of date (1827), (noun) kind of fish formerly believed to live in water underground (1566 as focille in the passage translated in quot. 1569 at sense A. 1), petrified organism (1732), person who is out of date (1833) < classical Latin fossilis obtained by digging (in post-classical Latin also as noun fossilia , neuter plural: see fossilia n.) < foss- , past participial stem of fodere to dig (see fodient adj.) + -ilis -il suffix. Compare Italian fossile (adjective) that can be extracted from the earth (16th or 17th cent.), (noun) mineral substance (1565), petrified organism (1750). Compare earlier fossilia n. A. n. †1. = fossil fish n. (a) at Compounds 2. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > fish > [noun] > defined by habitat > supposed to live in water underground fossil1569 fossil fish1652 1569 E. Fenton tr. P. Boaistuau Certaine Secrete Wonders Nature f. 50^v The auncient Philosophers affirme, that there haue bene founde fishes vnder the earth, who (for that cause) they called Focilles [Fr. focilles]. 2. †a. A rock or mineral substance, or an object composed of this, dug out of the earth. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > minerals > [noun] > mineral substance mineral?a1425 body1594 fossil1606 mineraloid1913 society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > mineral material > [noun] fossil1606 society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [noun] > digging or excavating > something dug out fossil1606 1606 T. Palmer Ess. Meanes to make Trauailes more Profitable ii. 84 Of things hid in the veines and wombe of the earth..namely, the Mines of mettals and Fossiles whereof there are such sundrie species. 1619 H. Hutton Follie's Anat. sig. B5^v So that he seemes as if black Vulcans art, Of diuerse fossiles had compil'd each part. 1668 H. Oldenburg Let. 14 Apr. in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) IV. 66 The fossils, most to be met with in the Contry of liege, are Cadmia, Alum, chalcanthum viride, ferrum, plumbum, and stibium. 1744 G. Berkeley Siris (ESTC T72826) §23 Its being dug out of the earth shews it to be a fossil. 1799 Scotl. Descr. (ed. 2) 15 An infinite diversity of minerals and other fossils. 1807 J. Headrick View Mineral. Arran 58 I could not find any solid rock of that fossil [sc. pitchstone]. 1817 Trans. Geol. Soc. 4 413 These singular fossils..are known at Belfast by the name of Paramoudra. b. Something preserved in the ground, esp. in petrified form in rock, and recognizable as the remains of a living organism of a former geological period, or as preserving an impression or trace of such an organism.guide, molecular, trace fossil, etc.: see the first element.Fossils are typically hard parts, such as bones, teeth, shells, or wood, which have been rapidly buried in sediment. This is followed by the petrifaction of their constituent materials (or the replacement or recrystallization of mineral components, as in fossil shells), or the preservation of a mould or cast of the organism's exterior or interior form as the surrounding material turns to rock. Trace fossils represent remnants of the activity of living organisms, such as burrows or footprints. Rarely, fossils of such insubstantial organisms as jellyfish are preserved in fine-grained rocks such as shales, or entire organisms may be preserved frozen, or embedded in amber or tar.Conventionally, the term fossil is usually reserved for remains older than 10,000 years, i.e. dating from before the end of the last glacial period. (Later remains may be called subfossil; cf. also mummy n.¹ 6a.)Fossils provide important evidence for the accurate dating of rock strata, and they have provided much of the information upon which the present subdivisions of the geological timescale are based.It is unclear whether quot. 1707 is an example of this sense or of sense A. 2a. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [noun] remains1705 fossil1736 medal of creation1804 death assemblage1953 1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening xii. 296 When a Plant petrifies, it degenerates by degrading it self to the Rank of Fossiles.] 1736 P. Collinson Let. 12 Mar. in J. Bartram Corr. (1992) 25 What are called fossils—being stones..that have either the impressions, or else the regular form of shells leaves, fishes, fungi [etc.]. 1765 Philos. Trans. 1764 (Royal Soc.) 54 39 It may indeed be thought unnecessary at this time, to say any thing of the origin of extraneous Fossils in general; all our modern naturalists being fully convinced, that they are the exuviæ or remains of animals and vegetables, and the greater part of them of marine production. 1777 E. Jacob Plantæ Favershamienses 143 The chambered Nautilus, is a common Fossil of these Cliffs. 1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) II. xvi. 100 He regarded fossils as the real remains of plants and animals which had been buried in the strata. 1890 Philos. Trans. 1889 (Royal Soc.) B. 180 259 The bone may well be an inter-clavicle, and the fossil would probably be a Pareiasaurian. 1920 A. M. Davies Introd. Palaeontol. xii. 354 The subject of the nomenclature, or naming of fossils, is one productive of much irritation and of many sarcastic utterances among geologists. 1936 Osiris 2 108 S. H. Scudder..described hundreds of insect fossils from the new and rich beds in the United States. 1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger xxxii. 330 I began to form a collection of marine fossils, some of them found high above the level of the sea. 2006 D. H. Erwin Extinction iii. 73 Conodonts are tiny, jagged, toothlike fossils made of calcium phosphate and common in rocks from the Ordovician through the Triassic. 3. a. figurative. A person or thing that is old or out of date, esp. a person who has lost the capacity for emotion or personal development or fails to absorb new ideas, practices, etc.Frequently with prefixed defining adjective old. ΘΚΠ the world > time > change > absence of change, changelessness > maintaining state or condition > [noun] > opponent of change Tory1712 old school1749 conservatist1831 conservative1832 fossil1844 mossback1873 stand-patter1902 old school tie1920 passéist1921 pastist1921 auntie1953 old schooler1964 Luddite1970 the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [noun] > old-fashionedness > something that is old-fashioned fogramity1796 fossil1844 back number1882 vieux jeu1896 dinosaur1899 Model T1909 old hat1911 throwback1923 museum piece1928 geriatric1977 1844 R. W. Emerson Young Amer. in Lect. in Wks. (1906) II. 300 Government has been a fossil; it should be a plant. a1855 C. Brontë Professor (1857) I. iv. 64 When a man endures patiently what ought to be unendurable, he is a fossil. 1857 H. Melville Confidence-man xxii. 161 The working or serving man, shall be a buried by-gone, a superseded fossil. c1899 E. A. Hyde Engaged Girl ii. 12 And he's such an old fossil—must be sixty at least! 1942 P. Sturges Great Moment in Four More Screenplays (1995) 398 However he may feel personally, the President of the United States must always conduct himself like an old fossil. 1986 D. Koontz Strangers i. ii. 138 Now even a burnt-out old fossil like me would turn away such a lovely girl as you. 2002 J. Eugenides Middlesex iii. 283 Dr. Phil was becoming a fossil. For my annual physical in 1972 he used diagnostic methods popular back in medical school in 1910. b. Linguistics. A word or other linguistic form which has become obsolete except in isolated regions or in set phrases, idioms, or collocations. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > other specific types of word hard word1533 household word1574 magic word1581 grandam words1598 signal word1645 book worda1670 wordie1718 my whole1777 foundling1827–38 keyword1827 Mesopotamia1827 thought-word1844 word-symbol1852 nursery word1853 pivot word1865 rattler1865 object word1876 pillow word1877 nonce-word1884 non-word1893 fossil1901 blessed word1910 bogy-word1919 catch-all1922 pseudo-word1929 false friend1931 plus word1939 descriptor1946 meta-word1952 discourse marker1967 shrub2008 1901 J. B. Greenough & G. L. Kittredge Words & their Ways in Eng. Speech xv. 195 English abounds in such fossils... Sometimes a word or a meaning has become obsolete except in an idiom or two. 1931 G. O. Curme Syntax xxiii. 456 The simple infinitive survives as a fossil in various categories. 1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 118 There is a rising doubt that the linguistic fossils he discovered in large numbers are really inherited..from Elizabethan England. 2000 Oceanic Linguistics 39 299 This prefix survives only as a fossil in the Berawan dialects, but evidently was still present at the time the rule of intervocalic devoicing was innovated. B. adj. Chiefly attributive. 1. Obtained by digging; found buried in the earth. Now chiefly of fuels and other materials occurring naturally in underground deposits; esp. in fossil fuel n.Used (esp. formerly) in names of mineral substances considered to resemble organic products, as fossil cork, meal, paper, etc.: see Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > industry > earth-moving, etc. > [adjective] > dug or excavated > obtained by digging fossil1652 1652 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 213 That sometimes fishes are digged out of the earth, which we may call Fossil, to distinguish them from aquatile, is recorded by grave and ancient Writers. 1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ (1681) 25 Lime, Chalk, Marle, or any cold fossile Soils, are an extraordinary Improvement to dry, sandy, hot Lands. 1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 101 Fossile Dice, which they say they dig out of the Earth. 1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 269 All fossil Salts, as Sea-Salt, Rock-Salt, &c. 1802 J. Playfair Illustr. Huttonian Theory 196 This is true likewise of the fossil-pitch of Coal-Brookdale. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 354 Fossil coal, and..bitumen, contain a large quantity of carbon. 1871 F. von Mueller in E. Cooper Forest Culture & Eucalyptus Trees (1876) 88 For many industrial purposes charcoal is far preferable to fossil coal. 1931 Jrnl. Farm Econ. 13 477 The fossil phosphates (phosphorates, e.g., American slate, which is 60 to 80 per cent pure phosphate lime) are generously and widely distributed. 1966 G. E. Fussell Eng. Dairy Farmer ii. 83 Lime, chalk, marl, or any fossil soil on dry, sandy land was advantageous. 1991 R. S. K. Barnes & K. H. Mann Fund. Aquatic Ecol. (ed. 2) vii. 110/2 Recent studies of..atmospheric methane indicate that most of it originated from recent biological activity, for it contains considerable amounts of carbon-14, while fossil methane contains only tiny amounts of this isotope. 2. a. Designating petrified remains or other traces of living organisms preserved in the earth, esp. in the strata of past geological periods; that is a fossil (sense A. 2b), fossilized. Hence (of organisms): known only in the form of fossils, dating from a past geological period. ΘΚΠ the world > life > biology > organism > fossil > [adjective] fossil1665 subfossil1829 anaerobic1878 anaerobian1879 anaerobious1884 anaerobiotic1885 1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 111 Of Fossile wood and Coals. 1695 J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth 252 The fossil Shells are many of them of the same kinds with those that now appear upon the neighbouring Shores. 1749 Philos. Trans. 1748 (Royal Soc.) 45 321 Its Shape bespeaks it to be a Species of Nautilus; and it is thought to be a Non-descript, both in its natural and fossil State. 1759 Philos. Trans. 1758 (Royal Soc.) 50 688 The fossill Bones of an Alligator found..near Whitby. 1809 W. Nicholson Brit. Encycl. V. at Oryctology The elephant whose remains have been found in America, the tooth of which differs essentially from all known fossil or recent species. 1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 101 The fossil ferns, equiseta, and other plants of the coal strata. 1851 G. F. Richardson Geol. (1855) 397 A mass of bituminous earth..containing numerous trunks of fossil trees, standing erect at a height of from one to three feet. 1863 T. H. Huxley Evid. Man's Place Nature 159 The fossil remains of man..do not..take us appreciably nearer to that lower pithecoid form. 1925 Amer. Hist. Rev. 30 618 The Fossil Foot-prints of the Connecticut Valley. 1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) 526 Pteridophytes (e.g., ferns)..assume some importance in the fossil forests, especially of the great Coal Age (Pennsylvanian). 1986 A. S. Romer & T. S. Parsons Vertebr. Body (ed. 6) iii. 40 Jawless vertebrates, such as the living lampreys and fossil relatives. 1993 Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 102 327 There is type material of 50 avian nominal taxa (of which 12 are fossil) in the South African Museum. 2004 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 37 69 No genuinely fossil human bones were found in the British gravel. b. Chiefly Physical Geography and Astronomy. In extended use: designating traces or remnants of physical features, phenomena, etc., which have survived from the distant past. ΚΠ 1860 Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. 1857–60 4 271 Several hypotheses have been proposed, to account for the existence of this bed of frozen gravel; such as its being, perhaps, a fossil glacier of a period of intense cold, during the drift epoch. 1885 G. K. Gilbert in 5th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. 1883–4 123 Wherever the surveyor's level has been applied to a fossil shore, it has been found that the ‘horizon’ of the latter departs notably from horizontality. 1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. x. 113 In fossil deltas, it is often difficult to prove that such oscillations of sea-level and interdigitations have occurred. 1979 B. M. French in O. Davis Omni Bk. of Space 208 What produced the unexpected ‘fossil magnetism’ detected in lunar rocks although the moon has no magnetic fields? 2001 N.Y. Times 1 July i. 18/3 The oldest light in the universe,..created within moments of the Big Bang... The probe will construct four full-sky pictures of this so-called fossil light. 3. a. figurative. Preserved unchanged by surrounding alterations; belonging to a previous period or era. Also: (derogatory) incapable of change or development; out of date, antiquated. ΘΚΠ the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > old-fashioned or antiquated moth-frettenOE antiquate?a1425 antique?1532 rusty1549 moth-eaten1551 musty1575 worm-eatenc1575 overyear1584 out of date1589 old-fashioned1592 out of date1592 worm-eat1597 old-fashion1599 ancient1601 outdated1616 out-of-fashion1623 over-aged1623 superannuateda1634 thorough-old1639 overdateda1641 trunk-hosea1643 antiquitated1645 antiquated1654 out-of-fashioned1671 unmodern1731 of the old school1749 auld-farrant1750 old-fangled1764 fossila1770 fogram1772 passé1775 unmodernized1775 oxidated1791 moss-covered1792 square-toeda1797 old-fashionable1807 pigtail1817 behind the times1826 slow1827 fossilized1828 rococo1836 antiquish1838 old-timey1850 out of season1850 moss-grown1851 old style1858 antiqued1859 pigtaily1859 prehistoric1859 backdated1862 played1864 fossiled1866 bygone1869 mossy-backed1870 old-worldly1878 past-time1889 outmoded1896 dated1900 brontosaurian1909 antiquey1926 horse-and-buggy1926 vintage1928 Neolithic1934 time-warped1938 demoded1941 steam age1941 hairy1946 old school1946 rinky-dink1946 time warp1954 Palaeolithic1957 retardataire1958 throwback1968 wally1969 antwacky1975 the world > time > relative time > the past > oldness or ancientness > [adjective] > old-fashioned or antiquated > of persons, views, etc. old-fashioned1596 musty1603 mildewed1605 fusty1609 wormy1611 frumpy1746 fossila1770 arriéré1814 has-been1819 Rip Van Winkleish1829 frumpish1847 archaistic1850 fogey1852 fogeyish1852 old fogeyish1853 rusty-fusty1864 mossbacked1876 dead-handed1928 Victorian1934 unhep1939 unhip1939 dinosaurian1943 square1946 dinosaur-like1947 dinosauric1977 analogue1993 the world > time > change > absence of change, changelessness > maintaining state or condition > [adjective] > incapable of progress fossilized1828 fossil1859 a1770 T. Chatterton Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 546 By Birth to Prejudice and Whim ally'd And heavy with hereditary Pride He modell'd Pleasure by a Fossil rule And spent his youth to prove himself a Fool. 1820 E. Elliott Peter Faultless 220 But Hal alone is, in the genuine sense, A specimen of fossil impudence, Worthy of everlasting preservation, To edify each future generation. 1841–4 R. W. Emerson Poet in Wks. (1906) I. 162 Language is fossil poetry. 1859 T. Parker in J. Weiss Life & Corr. T. Parker (1863) II. 103 The Pope is a fossil ruler, pre-mediæval. 1877 E. R. Conder Basis of Faith i. 34 The fossil impression of a dead faith. 1894 Ld. Rosebery in Westm. Gaz. 22 Mar. 5/2 Those fossil politicians—for there is a fossil Radicalism as well as a fossil Toryism. 1951 W. Lewis Rotting Hill vii. 236 This shadow of a Gemot, like the ‘constitutional monarchy’ and numerous other fossil institutions..cannot be denied a talismanic usefulness. 1996 J. Lanchester Debt to Pleasure (1997) 66 My father would take out a mortifyingly dilapidated grey woollen two-piece outfit, a fossil ancestor of the modern tracksuit. b. Linguistics. Of a word, a linguistic form, etc.: that has become obsolete except in isolated regions or in set phrases, idioms, or collocations. ΚΠ 1872 Notes & Queries 10 Aug. 104/1 We see, then, that this fossil word ‘-hoe’ rather indicates a social condition than a natural feature of the locality. 1879 J. Fraser Etruscans (title page) The light of an inductive philology, thrown on forty Etruscan fossil-words, preserved to us by ancient authors. 1905 Amer. Anthropologist 7 283 There is a fossil word pāt, whose proper meaning is uncertain, the word occurring only in the vocable junpāt. 1908 O. Heller in R. Baumbach Der Schwiegersohn 100 In Treuen, a fossil inflected dat. sing. of Treue, f. 1971 W. E. Bull Time, Tense, & Verb iii. 37 The frequency of the fossil form éramos..is high enough to preserve it. Compounds C1. Compounds of the noun. a. (a) General attributive. ΚΠ 1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. p. xxiii The Animal, the Vegetable, and the Fossil or Mineral Kingdom. 1842 H. Miller Old Red Sandstone (ed. 2) ii. 59 The labours of these two great men in fossil ichthyology. 1855 E. Forbes Lit. Papers vi. 166 There should..be a concordance in the arrangements of the recent and fossil collections. 1902 New Phytologist 1 209 The whole of the extensive fossil evidence supports the direct derivation of the medullate stele..from protostelic structure. 1936 Jrnl. Paleontol. 10 267/2 A study of several fossil collections from Osage strata of the southern Ozarks. 1972 K. S. Valdiya & V. J. Gupta in A. G. Jhingran et al. Himalayan Geol. II. 1 New fossil finds in the Kali and Kuti valleys in northeastern Kumaun. 1989 A. Walker Temple of my Familiar iii. 221 T. took me round the fossil cases and past the humanoid drawings..of mankind on his wearisome way up the evolutionary spiral. 2003 Independent 23 Jan. 4/1 A team..discovered six specimens of the species in the rich fossil beds of China's Liaoning Province. (b) Objective. fossil-bearing adj. ΚΠ 1834 A. Hawkins Picture of Quebec xx. 446 The horizontal fossil bearing strata of Beauport..is really conceived to be carboniferous limestone. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1134 Before the next great fossil-bearing strata, the Cretaceous rocks, a revolution in the plant world had taken place. 2005 M. Bjornerud Reading Rocks ii. 52 Most fossil-bearing layers are death assemblages—marine morgues. fossil-collecting adj. and n. ΚΠ 1855 W. S. Symonds Old Stones ii. 76 My object in recommending this spot to my fossil-collecting friends is, that they may at one journey enrich their cabinets. 1862 Recreative Sci. 3 186/1 By no means let your companion or companions be..opposed to geology and to fossil collecting. 1996 Lapidary Jrnl. Aug. 88/1 There is still one kind of rockhounding you may want to try: fossil collecting. 2009 Contra Costa (Calif.) Times (Nexis) 22 Jan. The adventure tale revolves around an 8-year-old girl and her fossil-collecting 10-year-old brother. fossil collector n. ΚΠ 1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. v. 76 No sum of money would enable the fossil collector to complete such a set. 1915 Washington Post 21 Feb. (Misc. section) 4/6 The fossil collectors set themselves to find out how far in both directions the remains run. 2002 Independent 24 May 8/5 The fossil-bearing rocks..have almost been totally ‘worked out’ as a result of a German fossil collector. fossil hunter n. ΚΠ 1823 G. Roberts Hist. Lyme Regis 128 The infant was not injured, but from that time..became very intelligent, and, as a fossil-hunter, was destined to bring to light some of the grandest relics of a primæval world. 1909 C. H. Sternberg (title) The life of a fossil hunter. 2006 C. Stringer Homo Britannicus Introd. 46 Charles Dawson, a solicitor and amateur fossil hunter. fossil-hunting n. and adj. ΚΠ 1840 W. Bilton Two Summers in Norway II. 204 I staid there several days, and saw enough to convince me that there are a hundred spots as favourable for fossil hunting, as those that have acquired a name. 1847 E. L. Blanchard Heads & Tales of Travellers & Travelling ii. 24 The fossil-hunting Bucklands and Murchisons of a future day. 1993 Time Out 31 Mar. 146/4 The 1920s expedition of the great fossil-hunting explorer Roy Chapman Andrews. 2003 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 36 480/1 Fossil-hunting was of particular interest in late sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century Rome. b. fossil botanist n. = palaeobotanist n. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > botany > [noun] > specific branches or aspects of botany > one knowledgeable in fossil botanist1832 phytogeographer1859 palaeophytologist1869 neo-botanist1870 palaeobotanist1876 phytopalaeontologist1882 plant geographer1883 phytopathologist1886 plant physiologist1888 plant pathologist1894 phytoecologist1899 phytochemist1914 phytosociologist1926 astrobotanist1952 archaeobotanist1954 1832 Edinb. New Philos. Jrnl. 13 227 When leaves are small and are densely imbricated, they are generally considered by fossil botanists to belong to either Lycopodiaceæ, or Coniferæ. 1963 Biogr. Mem. Fellows Royal Soc. 9 295 Thus Thomas moved from being a fossil botanist to a botanical philosopher. fossil botany n. = palaeobotany n. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > botany > [noun] > specific branches or aspects of botany phytognomy1643 topology1659 vegetable statics1691 cryptogamy1783 fossil botany1822 nomology1825 structural botany1835 phytochemistry1837 phytochimy1847 phytogeography1847 astrobotany1851 phytonomy1851 phytophysiology1854 palaeophytology1857 phytobiology1860 phytopathology1864 plant physiology1870 palaeobotany1872 plant geography1878 phytopalaeontology1879 plant pathology1891 ethnobotany1896 floristic1898 phyteconomy1898 phytoteratology1898 phytoecology1899 geobotany1904 phytosociology1917 archaeobotany1954 palaeoethnobotany1959 1822 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Gardening ii. i. 124 Fossil botany, as studied from the impressions of plants found in the secondary strata of the earth, has only lately begun to attract attention. a1911 J. D. Hooker in Science (1919) 6 June 527 My work is fossil botany; as legitimate a branch of Botany as is muscology. 1986 Systematic Bot. 11 19/2 The collection of papers..represents a solid contribution to our knowledge of fossil botany. C2. Compounds of the adjective. fossil copal n. [probably after French copal fossile (1812 or earlier)] old or partially mineralized copal resin found in the ground, esp. on the coast in Africa and elsewhere. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > hydrocarbon minerals > [noun] > resins > copalite fossil copal1815 copalite1868 1815 A. Aikin Man. Mineral. (ed. 2) 64 Fossil Copal. Highgate Resin. Colour light yellowish dirty brown. 1883 Official Catal. Internat. Fisheries Exhib. (ed. 4) 118 Collection of Anime Fossil Copal, from the beach of the east coast of Africa. 1916 C. F. Woods in L. S. Marks Mech. Engineers' Handbk. vi. 627 Ambroin is an insulating material made from fossil copal and silicates by a special process. a1990 Z. Volavka Crown & Ritual (1998) iii. 89 Although they certainly knew that it is collected at the foot of the tree, several of my informants insisted that pieces of fossil copal fall from heaven. † fossil cork n. [after French liège fossile (1764 or earlier)] Obsolete a variety of asbestos occurring in thick, light, flexible blocks; mountain cork. ΚΠ 1771 J. Keir in tr. P. J. Macquer Dict. Chem. I. 179/2 (note) Cork (Fossil), Suber montanum. This name is given to a stone which is a species of amianthus, consisting of flexible fibres loosely interwoven, and somewhat resembling vegetable cork. 1818 J. Souter Bk. Eng. Trades (new ed.) 126 Fossil-cork, is the name given to a kind of stone, which is the lightest of all stones. fossil farina n. [after French farine fossile (1763 or earlier)] now rare = fossil flour n. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > earth > [noun] > infusorial earth tripoli1601 fossil flour1788 fossil farina1789 terra cariosa1823 kieselguhr1875 diatomite1887 moler1910 the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > silicates > miscellaneous silicates > [noun] > diatomite fossil flour1788 fossil farina1789 terra cariosa1823 kieselguhr1875 diatomite1887 moler1910 1789 W. Radcliffe tr. K. I. Hablitz Nat. Hist. E. Tartary i. 23 We also find, here and there, the calcareous fossil Farina. 1827 Mechanics' Mag. 10 Nov. 260/2 The carbonated pulverulent lime, which Fabbreni discovered in Tuscany; of which he manufactured his floating bricks, and to which he gave the name of fossil farina. 1899 H. C. Pearson Crude Rubber v. 69 Fossil Farina, also called mountain milk, is an earth similar to infusorial earth. 1954 Rev. Appl. Entomol. A. 42 36 In further experiments on the protection of stored grain by dusting with fossil farina.., it was found that 0.2 per cent. of this material gives excellent protection. fossil fish n. †(a) a fish formerly supposed to live in water underground (obsolete); (b) a fossilized fish; an extinct fish existing only as fossils. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > fish > [noun] > defined by habitat > supposed to live in water underground fossil1569 fossil fish1652 1652 A. Ross Arcana Microcosmi 213 Where these Fossil fishes are found, there are subterraneall waters not farre off, by which they are conveyed thither. 1692 J. Ray Wisdom of God (ed. 2) 69 As for Fossil Fishes, some make their way into the Earth up the Veins of Water opening into the Banks of Rivers, where they lie till they grow so great that they cannot return. 1785 W. Smellie tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Gen. & Particular (ed. 2) IX. 303 Many other fossil fishes and shells, which no longer have any living representative, existed only in those primitive times when the earth and sea were still warm. 1845 N. Brit. Rev. 3 494 In all the families up to the commencement of the Cretaceous, there were almost no fossil fishes but Placoids and Ganoids. 1928 G. H. Wilkins Undiscovered Austral. 115 A fossil fish porphyrized and shining. 2000 H. Gee Deep Time ii. 46 My favourite gallery was one of the least visited—the Hall of Fossil Fishes. † fossil flax n. Obsolete a variety of asbestos; cf. earth flax n. at earth n.¹ Compounds 8b. ΚΠ 1748 L. Morris Plans Harbours, Bays & Roads in St. George's Channel 4/1 It is mentioned by Pliny..and others; who say, the Antients made Cloth of this Fossil Flax. 1811 R. Fenton Tour Quest Geneal. 230 The linum asbestinum, a kind of fossil flax, found in the stone asbestos, of which they say there is a quarry in Anglesea. 1859 D. Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 77 In fossil-flax they [sc. the fibres] are so loose and silky that Dolomieu used it for packing his other minerals. fossil flour n. [after French farine fossile (see fossil farina n.)] diatomaceous earth, kieselguhr, or a similar material. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > earth > [noun] > infusorial earth tripoli1601 fossil flour1788 fossil farina1789 terra cariosa1823 kieselguhr1875 diatomite1887 moler1910 the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > silicates > miscellaneous silicates > [noun] > diatomite fossil flour1788 fossil farina1789 terra cariosa1823 kieselguhr1875 diatomite1887 moler1910 1788 W. Nicholson tr. A.-F. de Fourcroy Elements Nat. Hist. & Chem. I. ii. i. 257 Genus I. Calcareous Earths... Species III. In powder. Variety. Fossil Flour [Fr. Farine fossile]. 1819 H. McMurtrie Sketches of Louisville 42 Here also may be found what the French mineralogists have denominated fossil flour, of a reddish brown colour. 1915 R. P. Clarkson Pract. Talks Farm Engin. v. 40 In another composition flooring..the specific materials are..25 parts of infusorial earth or fossil flour. 1995 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 24 Oct. e1 Diatomaceous earth (a.k.a. fossil flour) may be mixed into pet food..as a de-wormer. fossil ivory n. ivory from the tusks of dead mammoths, mastodons, or elephants preserved in the ground. ΚΠ 1728 Philos. Trans. 1726–7 (Royal Soc.) 34 514 A remarkable Piece of Fossil Ivory, or rather of an Elephant's Tooth. 1875 W. Maskell Ivories 2 Another kind of real ivory—the fossil ivory. 2006 C. Stringer Homo Britannicus Introd. 24 Buckland argued that it was the skeleton of a woman dating from Roman times, whose fellow tribesmen had dug up fossil ivory from the cave floor. fossil meal n. = fossil flour n. ΚΠ 1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. I. 665/2 Fossil-meal, otherwise called lac lune, mineral argaric, and guhr, is, according to M. Fabbroni, a mixed earth, which..is abundant in Tuscany, where it is employed for cleaning plate. 1883 Cassell's Family Mag. Dec. 62/2 ‘Fossil meal’ is the name given to a composition..used for coating steam pipes and boilers. 1927 M. L. Hartmann in E. W. Washburn et al. Internat. Crit. Tables Numerical Data II. 86/1 Diatomaceous earth (infusorial earth, kieselguhr, fossil flour, fossil meal, [etc.]). 1994 Ceramic Industry (Nexis) Jan. 16 Refractory products in staging category A are in harmonized code 6903, which contains other refractory goods..other than those of siliceous fossil meals or of similar siliceous earths. fossil ore n. chiefly U.S. (now rare) a fossiliferous form of haematite. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > minerals > ore > [noun] > metal ore > iron ore > others bloodstone1504 haematite1543 yellow share1590 keel1596 brush-ore1678 mush1686 brush-iron-ore1695 iron glance1792 specular iron (also iron ore)1796 steel-ore1796 oligistc1803 black band1811 old man1811 spathose iron-ore1823 pitticite1826 siderose1834 blink klip1835 pharmacosiderite1835 sphaerosiderite1837 fossil ore1846 jacutinga1846 vignite1846 siderite1848 junckerite1865 needle iron-ore1867 xanthosiderite1868 specularite1892 pitch ore1896 minette1902 taconite1905 1846 Fisher's National Mag. 1 441 An ore lying on the eastern flank of Wills' Mountain [Maryland]... From the great abundance of marine fossils in this ore, it has come to take the name of fossil ore. 1896 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 5 31 The Clinton fossil ores (red hematite)..now constitute the bulk of the ore mined in this district. 1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) xiii. 137 This iron ore..is often highly fossiliferous, hence the name ‘fossil ore’. † fossil paper n. [probably after French papier fossile (1764 or earlier); compare earlier mountain paper at mountain n. and adj. Compounds 2b(b)] Obsolete a variety of asbestos occurring as thin, flexible sheets. ΚΠ 1805 S. Weston Werneria I. 33 Suber Montanum, mountain cork, or membranaceous asbestos,..or fossil paper, floats commonly on water. 1890 R. H. Jones Asbestos i. 15 Mountain Paper is..a papery-looking sub-variety of asbestos, sometimes called fossil paper. fossil record n. Palaeontology a series or sequence of fossils which, dated in correlation with the strata in which they are found, provide material evidence of evolutionary or geological history, esp. that of a particular group of organisms, a region, etc. (in quot. 1863, with the general sense of ‘fossil evidence’, and not a fixed collocation). ΚΠ 1863 Continental Monthly Jan. 80/1 The earliest fossil record of animal life is witness to the simplicity of organic structure.] 1877 N.Y. Times 29 Sept. 3/3 He [sc. Joseph Leconte] requires the admission of a more rapid rate of evolution of life on the globe during critical periods, in order to account for the breaks that occur in the fossil record of life at certain points of the grand chain. 1880 Science 18 Sept. 141/2 The sea-urchins,..with a comparatively complete fossil record, offer a tempting field for speculation. 1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. xiii. 306 Thus in the fossil record a succession of types is really visible, and the succession is definitely one of lower by higher types. 2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life ii. iii. 151 Many [red seaweeds] acquire a coating of calcium carbonate (which is one reason why their fossil record is so good). fossil screw n. now rare any of various invertebrate fossils having a spiral or furrowed cylindrical structure, such as a gastropod columella or the stalk of a crinoid or sponge. ΚΠ 1838 C. Lyell Elements Geol. iv. 80 Thus a cast such as a, Fig. 54., commonly called a fossil screw, would never be suspected by an inexperienced conchologist to be the internal shape of the fossil univalve. 1912 C. S. Prosser Devonian & Mississippian Formations Northeastern Ohio iv. 331 What Mr. Lampson called a ‘fossil screw’ was found in the second sandstone from the top, probably a specimen of a Dictyophyton. 1951 G. W. Himus & G. S. Sweeting Elem. Field Geol. ii. xv. 200 Lengths of fossil crinoid stems are sometimes described by quarrymen as fossil screws. fossil water n. †(a) (English regional) a white or colourless translucent mineral forming crystals or veins in rock (obsolete); (b) water that has been confined in an aquifer, glacier, etc., for a very long period of time (thousands or millions of years) and hence is not renewable; cf. connate adj. 5. ΚΠ 1849 H. M. Lee in N. Walker & T. Craddock Hist. Wisbech 542 Nodules of blue argillaceous limestone, which are often traversed by fissures or cracks filled with calcareous spar, commonly called ‘fossil water’. 1882 W. J. Harrison Geol. Counties Eng. iii. 16 Semi-transparent glassy crystals of selenite, called ‘fossil water’ by the workmen. 1902 Geol. Mag. 9 560 Such washing-out of the original ‘fossil’ water may have taken place anywhere. 1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 60/2 Most of this water is fossil water gathered after the last ice age, when the Sahara must have been a tropical region with heavy rainfall. 2005 Windsor Star (Ont.) (Nexis) 26 Dec. a12 The shrinkage of the glaciers is well-documented... ‘That's fossil water, and when it's gone, it's gone.’ fossil wax n. [After French cire fossile (1833), itself probably after German Erdwachs (see earth wax n. at earth n.¹ Compounds 8b).] = mineral wax n. at mineral adj. Compounds 1. ΚΠ 1834 London & Edinb. Philos. Mag. 5 316 Fossil wax of Moldavia. By M. Magnus. This substance is evidently a mixture of several different matters. 1868 J. D. Dana Syst. Mineral. (ed. 5) 733 Zietrisikite... The almost complete insolubility of this fossil wax in ether distinguishes it decisively from ozocerite. 1960 Stud. in Consvervation 5 79/1 Crude montan wax, a fossil wax, is important for the production of half-synthetic or synthetic waxes... This wax is extracted from lignite. fossil wood n. fossilized or petrified wood; mineralized or compacted wood found in the earth; (formerly also) †a mineral substance resembling wood (obsolete). ΚΠ 1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 111 Of Fossile wood and Coals. 1788 J. Hutton Theory Earth 234 In other specimens of this mineralizing operation, fossil wood..has been afterwards penetrated with a flinty substance. 1856 A. M. Murray Lett. from U.S. 295 We soon came to the petrified forest, which is said to be ten miles in extent. I found fine specimens of fossil-wood, whole trunks of trees. 1904 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 78 Taxoxylon Philpii..represents the first taxaceous fossil wood from Queensland. 1997 Rec. W. Austral. Mus. 18 263 Fossil wood associated with the pliosaurs contains..bivalve borings and hyphae of saprophytic fungi. † fossil wool n. Obsolete a fibrous variety of asbestos. ΚΠ 1859 D. Page Handbk. Geol. Terms 170 Fossil-Paper, Fossil-Wool,..familiar terms applied to certain varieties of amianthus. 1892 M. P. Bale Pumps & Pumping (ed. 2) i. 19 The author has found slag wool, thick hair felt lagged with wool, and fossil wool all answer well for pipe coverings. Derivatives ˈfossil-like adj. ΚΠ 1806 J. Sowerby Brit. Mineral. II. 167 The state in which we find very rotten wood sometimes above ground,..with an earthy, fossil-like appearance. 1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. i. 61 Long-forgotten strata of society which our fossil-like records reveal to us. 1970 R. P. Stearns Sci. Brit. Colonies Amer. i. 10 Stones also included all fossils and fossil-like substances. 2005 Manly (Austral.) Daily (Nexis) 22 Oct. The price of concert tickets to watch some fossil-like overseas act squeeze out a ‘farewell tour’ before saying goodbye again a year later. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022). fossilv. Brit. /ˈfɒsl/, U.S. /ˈfɑs(ə)l/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: fossil n. Etymology: < fossil n. Compare later fossiled adj. transitive (chiefly in passive). = fossilize v. 2a, 3b (literal and figurative). ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > structure of the earth > formation of features > formation of rock or stone > [verb (transitive)] > fossilize fossil1750 fossilize1794 fossilify1843 permineralize1952 1750 S. Lethieullier Let. 29 Oct. in J. Nichols Illustr. Lit. Hist. (1818) III. 639 Not only teeth, but bones of elephants, are frequently found fossiled in Russia, Siberia, and other countries. 1859 Guardian Mar. 73 They exist no more, except as they are fossiled in our memory of the years that are past. 1882 Chem. News 3 Feb. 53/2 He..showed some specimens of ‘bog wood’ which he had partially fossiled. 1921 A. L. Donaldson Hist. Adirondacks I. xiii. 128 A bustling little village grew up, and in its name the memory of Charles Frederick Hereshoff lies fossiled forever. 2003 J. H. Ritter Boy who saved Baseball vii. 59 It's older than the woolback mammoths that're fossiled in these hills. This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, November 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.1569v.1750
随便看	sulphurbreasted sulphurcast sulphurcolour sulphurcoloured sulphurcontaining sulphurcrested sulphure sulphureal sulphurean sulphureate sulphured sulphureity sulphureo sulphureo- sulphureous sulphureous acid sulphureous acid gas sulphureous hydrogen sulphureous salt sulphureous spirit sulphureously sulphureousness sulphuret sulphuretted sulphuretted hydrogen

fossiln.adj.

Compounds

Derivatives

fossilv.