palimpsest
Americannoun
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a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.
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something that has a new layer, aspect, or appearance that builds on its past and allows us to see or perceive parts of this past: Today's towering Romanesque-Gothic structure is a palimpsest, the result of numerous additions and reconstructions.
Most of what we actually see when we view any culture is a historical palimpsest, with traces of former times.
Today's towering Romanesque-Gothic structure is a palimpsest, the result of numerous additions and reconstructions.
Memory is a palimpsest that is continually being written over, but never perfectly so.
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012adjective
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(of a text) written on a palimpsest
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(of a document) used as a palimpsest
Other Word Forms
- palimpsestic adjective
Etymology
Origin of palimpsest
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin palimpsēstus, from Greek palímpsēstos “rubbed again” ( pálin “again” + psēstós “scraped, rubbed,” past participle of psân “to rub smooth”)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Rosia Montana is a landscape of great cultural importance — a palimpsest of mining activity from Roman times through the Austro-Hungarian period to the Communist era,” Wilson said.
From Seattle Times
While reading the July 2 Weekend film review “A great music documentary and an exhilarating time capsule,” I saw the word “palimpsest.”
From Washington Post
Worn by use over time and torn out, the floors meld histories in sedimented layers, producing palimpsests that Adams has ingeniously transposed into warp and weft and dotted with glinting metallic chains and glass beads.
From New York Times
But Thompson cleverly interweaves present-day interviews into the archival images, creating an illuminating palimpsest of equally moving and eerily timely narratives.
From Washington Post
The traces of old marks may remain, but it is much easier to draw new habits over the top of them like a palimpsest.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
