Vestigial means left over from an earlier form and no longer of use. A vestigial tail, vestigial organs, vestigial remains.
In biology it is a precise term and good evidence for common descent, since a vestigial structure only makes sense as an inheritance. Whales have vestigial hip bones with no legs attached to them.
1adjectivevestigialLeft over from an earlier form and no longer of use.
“The human tailbone is a vestigial remnant of the tail our distant ancestors had.”
vestigial is a quality.
From vestige, from Latin vestigium, a footprint or trace.
Latin
vestīgium — footstep, footprint, track, the sole of the foot, a trace, mark
French
vestige
English
vestige
English, today
vestigial
From vestīgium + al. by surface analysis, vestige + -ial. vestige comes from French vestige, from Latin vestīgium (“footstep, footprint, track, the sole of the foot, a trace, mark”). a doublet of vestigium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA