Fossilify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To change living matter over time into a fossil by mineralization ; to become rigidly set and unable to adapt or develop further
2. To petrify an organic remain into stone-like preserved form ; to harden into an inflexible state that resists any further change
3. To convert a once-living body into a fossil through slow mineral replacement ; to grow so set in old habits that progress stops

Etymology: Fossilify is about as plain as English coinages get: it is "fossil" with the verb-forming suffix "-ify" attached. The suffix comes through Old French "-ifier" from Latin "-ificare", a verb-making ending built on "-ficare" from "facere", "to make". So the word literally means "to make into a fossil." The base word "fossil" comes from Latin "fossilis", meaning "dug up", from "fodere", "to dig". Its English sense as a relic of the distant past developed from the older meaning of anything dug out of the earth, which is why a rock or bone pulled from the ground could be called a fossil long before anyone understood what such remains were. The verb carries the same idea into figurative use: a person, habit, or institution that hardens into an unchanging old form can be said to fossilify. Here the earth-digging origin and the making-into-stone sense of the suffix combine, so the word describes becoming a relic while still alive.

Synonyms: fossilize, petrify