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.

   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.

vestige

/ 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestige¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of vestige¹

C17: via French from Latin vestīgium track

Synonym Study

See trace ¹.

Example Sentences

The governor has an $86 million war chest that he’s used to unseat insufficiently loyal incumbents, part of a larger right-wing push to eviscerate the last vestiges of bipartisanship in the bright-red Legislature.

From Salon

Discovery is burdened with billions in debt, a vestige of Discovery’s takeover of WarnerMedia from AT&T three years ago.

From Los Angeles Times

In the words of Gulf scholar Paul Rich, this was "the Indian Empire's last redoubt, just as Goa was Portuguese India's last solitary vestige, or Pondicherry was the tag-end of French India".

From BBC

In that sense, Deathracer413 is more than a subcultural vestige — its members present a sports medicine study of sorts, says Michael Burnett, editor in chief of “Thrasher Magazine,” a longtime skateboarding publication.

From Los Angeles Times

We know from experience why the country had DEI programs, because we remember Jim Crow and its vestiges in segregated schools and neighborhoods.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• glimmer 
• relic 
• remnant 
• residue