Vestige

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈvɛs.tɪd͡ʒ/

Definitions

1. A trace or remnant of something that once existed but has mostly disappeared or been lost
2. a surviving mark or indication of something formerly present but now largely vanished or gone
3. a remaining fragment or evidence that something previously existed but has since largely faded or been destroyed

Etymology: The Latin "vestigium" meant a footprint, the sole of the foot, or a track left on the ground, and that physical sense sits right at the heart of "vestige." A person walking across soft earth leaves a mark that outlasts the moment of stepping, and the Romans used the same image for any trace that remains after the thing that made it has gone. The word reached English by way of French "vestige," which carried the same footprint-and-trace meaning. English speakers took it up with the sense that survives today: a small remnant or sign of something that once existed in fuller form, such as the vestiges of an old city wall or a lingering trace of a habit. The footstep has become a faint impression of a presence. "Vestige" has a close relative in English: "vestigial" and "investigate" share its Latin root, which explains how a word for a footprint came to be tied to the idea of tracking things down. Its doublet "vestigium" stayed in Latin and was adopted into English as a technical term, so the same Latin word reached the language twice by two different routes.

Synonyms: remnant, trace, fragment

Antonyms: whole, entirety