vestige

American  

[ves-tij] / ˈvɛs tɪdʒ /

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.

   Synonyms:

   token

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.

   Synonyms:

   suggestion, hint

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.

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vestige British  

/ ˈvɛstɪdʒ /

noun

1. a small trace, mark, or amount; hint

   a vestige of truth

   no vestige of the meal

2. biology an organ or part of an organism that is a small nonfunctioning remnant of a functional organ in an ancestor

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Related Words

See trace ¹.

Etymology

Origin of vestige

First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French, from Latin vestīgium “footprint”

Explanation

A vestige is a trace or reminder of something that has disappeared or is disappearing. A lump of snow with a carrot in it might be the vestige of a snowman. Vestige derives from the Latin vestigium, "footprint," and that is a good way to think of it — as a little hint of what was there before. It's something left behind, like a puddle after a heavy rainstorm. Sometimes vestige is used to emphasize a small amount; for example, you might say that the robber didn't show even a vestige of remorse after he was caught.

Example Sentences

There will be two below-grade outdoor spaces, the Sunken Garden and the Vestige Garden.

From New York Times • Sep. 7, 2022

“This issue is at the forefront of people in the black community,” Quentin James, a co-founder of the public-affairs firm Vestige Strategies, which specializes in engaging communities of color, told me.

From New York Times • May 4, 2015

Batik Store, a Vestige of the Hippie Era, Will Fade Away In the hippie-altered world in which Nancy Cogen plunked down her store 41 years ago, batik cloth was still an offbeat novelty.

From New York Times • Jul. 26, 2013

Investigators also searched Vestige Digital Investigations, a digital forensics storage company in Medina in northeast Ohio.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 30, 2013

Point in the center of a circle represents the Light of the Vestige of   the Garment, Yod, 750-m.

From Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry by Pike, Albert

Related Words

• glimmer
• relic
• remnant
• residue