Fossil word

English-language examples

• ado, as in "" or "", although the homologous form "to-do" remains attested
• bandy, as in "" or ""
• bated, as in "", although the derived term "abate" remains in nonidiom-specific use
• beck, as in "", although the verb form "beckon" is still used in nonidiom-specific use
• behest, as in "at one's behest"
• bygones, as in ""
• coign, as in ""
• champing, as in "champing at the bit", where "champ" is an obsolete precursor to "chomp", in current use.
• deserts, as in "", although singular "desert" in the sense of "state of deserving" occurs in nonidiom-specific contexts including law and philosophy. The common usage of "dessert", meaning a sweet dish at the end of a meal, may have meant what you deserved after eating the savory part of the meal.
• dint, as in ""
• dudgeon, as in ""
• eke, as in ""
• fettle, as in ""
• fro, as in ""
• hark, as in "hark back to" or "hark at you"
• helter skelter, as in "scattered about the office", Middle English skelten to hasten
• hither, as in "come hither", "hither and thither", and "hither and yon"
• immemorial, as in ""
• jetsam, as in "", except in legal contexts
• kith, as in ""
• loggerheads as in "" or loggerhead turtle
• neap, as in ""
• offing, as in ""
• petard, as in "wikt:hoisted by one's own petard|hoist by own petard"
• riddance, as in ""
• shebang, as in "", although the word is also used as a common noun in programmers' jargon.
• shrive, preserved only in inflected forms occurring only as part of fixed phrases: 'shrift' in "" and 'shrove' in "Shrove Tuesday"
• spick, as in ""
• turpitude, as in ""
• wedlock, as in "out of wedlock"
• wreak, as in "" "wreak damage"，and ""
• , as in "" and wrought iron
• vim, as in ""
• yore, as in "", usually "days of yore"

  "Born fossils"

• caboodle, as in ""
• druthers, as in ""
• tarnation, as in ""