24 April 2013

vestige

[ves-tij]

noun

1. a mark, trace, or visible evidence of something that is no longer present or in existence: A few columns were the last vestiges of a Greek temple.
2. a surviving evidence or remainder of some condition, practice, etc.: These superstitions are vestiges of an ancient religion.
3. a very slight trace or amount of something: Not a vestige remains of the former elegance of the house.
4. Biology . a degenerate or imperfectly developed organ or structure that has little or no utility, but that in an earlier stage of the individual or in preceding evolutionary forms of the organism performed a useful function.
5. Archaic. a footprint; track.

Origin:
1535–45; < Middle French < Latin vestīgium footprint

Synonyms
1. token. See trace1 . 3. hint, suggestion.

Today’s aphorism

He was such a bad writer, they revoked his poetic license.
– Milton Berle

On this day

24 April 1581 – birth of St Vincent de Paul, Catholic priest, born in France, who dedicated himself to serving the poor. Died 27 September 1660.