relic

[ rel-ik ]

noun

1. a surviving memorial of something past.
2. an object having interest by reason of its age or its association with the past:

   a museum of historic relics.

3. a surviving trace of something:

   a custom that is a relic of paganism.

4. relics,
   1. remaining parts or fragments.
   2. the remains of a deceased person.
5. something kept in remembrance; souvenir; memento.
6. Ecclesiastical. (especially in the Roman Catholic and Greek churches) the body, a part of the body, or some personal memorial of a saint, martyr, or other sacred person, preserved as worthy of veneration.
7. a once widespread linguistic form that survives in a limited area but is otherwise obsolete.

relic

/ ˈrɛlɪk /

noun

1. something that has survived from the past, such as an object or custom
2. something kept as a remembrance or treasured for its past associations; keepsake
3. usually plural a remaining part or fragment
4. RC Church Eastern Churches part of the body of a saint or something supposedly used by or associated with a saint, venerated as holy
5. informal.
   an old or old-fashioned person or thing
6. archaic.
   plural the remains of a dead person; corpse
7. See relict
   ecology a less common term for relict

Other Words From

• relic·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of relic¹

1175–1225; Middle English < Old French relique < Latin reliquiae (plural) remains (> Old English reliquias ), equivalent to reliqu ( us ) remaining + -iae plural noun suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of relic¹

C13: from Old French relique , from Latin reliquiae remains, from relinquere to leave behind, relinquish

Example Sentences

He would become a keeper of junkyards—overgrown lost worlds of relic chariots.

From Nautilus

Today Friedman’s doctrine, like many relics of the 1970s, is viewed as a bit of a cartoon.

From Quartz

Most notably, Switzerland completely overhauled its epidemic law, a relic from 1886.

From Ozy

It’s one of the most amusing ongoing appendage-measuring contests in media, a relic of the TV era and an example of how the fiercest battles are often fought over the most inconsequential things.

From Digiday

One thing that’s keeping them alive is relic organic matter deposited from the ocean in an earlier geologic era.

From Quanta Magazine

Blues music is often treated like a museum piece, a relic from a bygone day, but this band will make you want to get up and dance.

From The Daily Beast

Orphans is a true literary relic: a small shapely paperback that is tough to track down, thanks to a limited print run.

From The Daily Beast

And then Further is gone, back on the road, like a time-traveling relic from another era or an apparition of Jerry Garcia.

From The Daily Beast

Enjoy Messi while you can—he might play on for a few years yet but everything he represents is already a relic.

From The Daily Beast

Marrero himself was hardly a “cup of coffee” relic or a minor character belatedly retrieved from the dustbin of baseball history.

From The Daily Beast

No one who visits Salisbury will forget Stonehenge, the most remarkable relic of prehistoric man to be found in Britain.

From Project Gutenberg

A relic, saved no doubt from the wreck of the Abbaye de Chelles, stood like an ornament on the chimney-piece.

From Project Gutenberg

The Tuscan people set great store by the possession of this relic, and have engraved a representation of it upon their coins.

From Project Gutenberg

This is, perhaps, almost beneath the dignity of the love-story, but we have to regard it as a relic.

From Project Gutenberg

The Bourg is empty and dark, steeped in black shadows at the door of the chapel where the relic has been laid to rest.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• antique
• antiquity
• artifact
• curio
• evidence
• fragment
• keepsake
• memento
• monument
• remains
• remnant
• souvenir