fossil

See also: Fossil, fóssil, and fòssil

English

A fossil.

Etymology

From French fossile, from Latin fossilis (“something which has been dug up”), from fodio (“I dig up”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfɒsəl/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈfɑːsəl/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒsəl

Noun

fossil (plural fossils)

  1. The mineralized remains of an animal or plant.
  2. (paleontology) Any preserved evidence of ancient life, including shells, imprints, burrows, coprolites, and organically-produced chemicals.
    • 2012 March-April, John T. Jost, “Social Justice: Is It in Our Nature (and Our Future)?”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 162:
      He draws eclectically on studies of baboons, descriptive anthropological accounts of hunter-gatherer societies and, in a few cases, the fossil record.
  3. (linguistics) A fossil word.
  4. (figuratively) Anything extremely old, extinct, or outdated.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

See also

Danish

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis, from fossa (“ditch”).

Adjective

fossil

  1. fossil (noun modifier), fossilised (UK), fossilized

Inflection

Inflection of fossil
Positive Comparative Superlative
Common singular fossil — —2
Neuter singular fossilt — —2
Plural fossile — —2
Definite attributive1 fossile — —
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Etymology 2

From New Latin fossile.

Noun

fossil n (singular definite fossilet, plural indefinite fossiler)

  1. fossil
Inflection

German

Etymology

From Latin fossilis (“something which has been dug up”), from fodio (“I dig up”).

Adjective

fossil (not comparable)

  1. fossil

Declension

Further reading

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis

Adjective

fossil (neuter singular fossilt, definite singular and plural fossile)

  1. fossilised (UK), fossilized, or fossil (noun modifier: e.g. fossil fuels)

Etymology 2

From New Latin [Term?]

Noun

fossil m, n (definite singular fossilen or fossilet, indefinite plural fossiler or fossil, definite plural fossilene or fossila)

  1. a fossil (fossilised remains of an animal or plant)
Derived terms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Latin fossilis

Adjective

fossil (neuter singular fossilt, definite singular and plural fossile)

  1. fossilised (UK), fossilized, or fossil (noun modifier)

Etymology 2

From New Latin

Noun

fossil n (definite singular fossilet, indefinite plural fossil, definite plural fossila)

  1. a fossil (as above)

References

Swedish

Adjective

fossil

  1. fossil

Declension

Inflection of fossil
Indefinite Positive Comparative Superlative2
Common singular fossil — —
Neuter singular fossilt — —
Plural fossila — —
Definite Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine singular1 fossile — —
All fossila — —
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.

Noun

fossil n

  1. a fossil

Declension

Declension of fossil 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative fossil fossilet fossil fossilen
Genitive fossils fossilets fossils fossilens
Declension of fossil 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative fossil fossilet fossiler fossilerna
Genitive fossils fossilets fossilers fossilernas

References

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