fossilized

English

Alternative forms

• fossilised (UK)

Verb

fossilized

1. simple past and past participle of fossilize

Adjective

fossilized

1. In a state of fossilization; preserved in rock.
2. Outmoded.
3. (linguistics) Having become a fossil; no longer productive.

   A fossil word in a language is a word which has fallen out of use except for in set phrases: e.g. the English word fro, used only in to and fro. A fossilized bound morpheme (e.g. a fossilized affix) is one which was once able to derive words, but which now only exists as a fixed component of words: e.g. the English abstract noun–forming suffix -th.

Synonyms

• (outmoded): antiquated, disused, outdated; see also Thesaurus:obsolete or Thesaurus:unfashionable

Derived terms

• fossilized lightning
• nonfossilized
• prefossilized
• semifossilized
• subfossilized
• unfossilized

Translations

in a state of fossilisation

Danish: fossil (da) Estonian: please add this translation if you can Finnish: fossilisoitunut (fi), kivettynyt (fi) French: fossilisé (fr) Galician: fósil (gl) m German: fossilisiert (de), versteinert (de) Greek: please add this translation if you can Gujarati: અશ્મિભૂત (aśmibhūt) Hungarian: please add this translation if you can Polish: skostniały (pl) Portuguese: fossilizado (pt) Romanian: fosilizat Spanish: please add this translation if you can Swedish: fossiliserad