Other forms: relics
A relic is an object that has survived from the past and is kept for that reason. A rusted helmet in a museum case, a great-aunt's typewriter in the attic, a stretch of Roman wall running through a car park.
The oldest use is religious: a saint's bone, a splinter of wood, a scrap of cloth kept in a church and treated as holy — relics of the True Cross drew crowds across medieval Europe. From there it widened to anything left over from an earlier age, and it takes of: a relic OF the Cold War, a relic OF an older way of working. Aimed at a rule or a person it stings, because calling a manager a relic says he belongs to a time that has gone. Keep it for things that have outlived their world, not for things that are merely old — a chair from 1990 is old, a ration book is a relic. The plural relics also means what is left of a body or a ruin.
1nounrelicAn object that has survived from an earlier time and is kept because of it.
“The museum's best relic is a wooden spoon from a Viking kitchen.”
2nounsaintsPart of a saint's body, or something a saint owned, kept and honoured in a church.
“Pilgrims walked for days to see the relic.”
3nounoutlastedSomething that has outlasted the age it belonged to and now looks out of place.
“The fax machine is a relic of an office nobody misses.”
relic is an object that has survived from the past.
Relic came through Old French relique from Latin reliquiae, 'remains', which grew out of relinquō, 'to leave behind' — re- plus linquō, 'to leave, quit, depart from'. A relic is, precisely, the thing that got left behind. The same Latin verb gave English relinquish, relict and derelict, so a relic and a derelict building are family: both are what the past walked away from.
Latin
reliquiae — remains, relics
Old French
relique
Middle English
relik
English, today
relic
Built from
From Middle English relik et al., from Old French relique, from Latin reliquiae (“remains, relics”), from relinquō (“to leave behind, abandon, relinquish”), from re- + linquō (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”). a doublet of relict and derelict and relinquish.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA