vestigial

Definitions

vestige (a trace, footprint) + -ial (relating to) = 'being only a trace.' Something vestigial has shrunk to a footprint of its former self. In biology a vestigial organ is one evolution worked down to a remnant — the appendix, the tailbone — still present, but stripped of its old job.

Why It Means This

Vestigial is where the 'footprint' root meets evolutionary biology. When a body feature stops being useful, evolution does not always erase it; it lets it dwindle into a leftover — a vestige. The human appendix, the coccyx (tailbone), the hidden hip bones of whales, the non-functional eyes of cave fish: all are vestigial, footprints of what an ancestor once needed. Outside biology the word stretches to any faded remnant — a vestigial sense of duty, a vestigial law no one enforces.

Common Collocations

• 1.vestigial organ退化器官
• 2.vestigial structure退化结构
• 3.vestigial tail退化的尾巴
• 4.vestigial limb退化的肢体

Example Sentences

• 1.

  The appendix is often described as a vestigial organ.

• 2.

  Whales have tiny vestigial hind-limb bones buried in their bodies.

• 3.

  He retained only a vestigial interest in the family business.

• 4.

  The button is vestigial now — it no longer connects to anything.