vestigial means of or pertaining to a vestige or remnant; like a trace from the past. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 77 out of 100.
vestigial is pronounced /vɛˈstɪd͡ʒɪəl/.
Why “vestigial” is a great word
VESTIGIAL — [Adjective] Pertaining to a small, degenerate, or imperfectly developed bodily part or organ that has lost most or all of its original function in the course of evolution. From Latin vestīgium ("footprint, trace") + the adjectival suffix -al. Unlike "rudimentary," which suggests a foundational beginning, or "atrophied," which implies a wasting from disuse, "vestigial" describes a function abandoned in deep evolutionary time. It is the whisper of hip bones in a whale, the flightless wings of an ostrich, the soft nub of a human tailbone—quiet monuments in warm flesh to ancestors we never knew. These are the indelible footprints of our former selves, pressed into the anatomy of the present.
Etymology
From Latin vestīgium + -al. By surface analysis, vestige + -ial.
adj
- Of or pertaining to a vestige or remnant; like a trace from the past.
- Not fully developed in mature animals.
- Of a vestigial structure; that has lost all or most of its original function in the course of evolution.“Remnants of the vascular supply of lost organs may be present in the tissues of the receptacle when all external evidence of the organs has disappeared. Only rarely does the vascular supply of a vestigial organ disappear while external remnants are still present.”
noun
- A small, degenerate, or imperfectly developed part or organ which has been more fully developed in some past generation.