Relic - relict

The two words relic and relict share an origin, and to some extent a meaning ('something left behind') - although relict has a much more restricted meaning, and use. Do not make the mistake that some people have of thinking that relict is a more formal, or more elegant, way of saying relic. It isn't.

Etymological note: both relic and relict are English forms of the past participle, relictus, of the Latin verb relinquere, 'to leave [behind]'. This is also the root of the English verb 'to relinquish'.

• Relic is a fairly common word meaning 'something left behind' - particularly
  • [some of] the physical remains of a saint kept as a focus for worship or prayer. This is a practice observed in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox branches of Christianity, and in Shia Islam as well as in other religions.
  • 'A memento' of some person whose memory is being preserved - "The family keeps his old walking stick as a relic".
  • 'A trace of something old and destroyed' - much archaeological excavation is concerned with bringing relics of ancient cultures to light.
  • Any one of a number of mainly quasi-figurative meanings.
• A relict is the widow left behind when a married man dies. This word is not current in this sense, except jocularly, although it was the normal term in formal social conversation, gravestones, etc., until well into the twentieth century.
  • Relict is currently used in various academic disciplines as both noun and adjective to mean 'left over', 'survivor' or 'trace of an older state or condition', for example:
    • in biological sciences, a relict or relict species is one which has survived, usually because of its isolation, while elsewhere the majority have evolved into a further form. There are also relict genes, traces in DNA of forms that belong to a much older stage of evolution which may no longer be expressed in any current form;
    • in physical geography, a relict is "A rock or landform surviving from a previous age or in changed circumstances after the extinction or disappearance of related forms or structures" (OED;
    • in archaeology, relicts can be traces of former structures, etc, which can serve to hint at their form etc, although they themselves have disappeared;
    • in linguistics, relicts are archaic forms, etc, in a language which survive although their current function is otiose.

English took the word relic from French, which had already adopted it from Latin. The normal spelling in Middle English was the French relique, pronounced exactly the same as relic: 'RELL-ick' (IPA: /ˈrɛl ɪk/). Writers used this spelling until the nineteenth century when they wanted to give their work an archaic flavour, as did Bishop Percy in his Reliques.

The same spelling survives in reliquary, which is always pronounced nowadays with a '-w-' sound: 'RELL-ik-werry' (IPA: /ˈrɛl ɪk wə rɪ/). (Before the eighteenth century, it was normally pronounced like relique and relic, that is 'Rell-ick-erry' (IPA: /rɛl ɪk ə rɪ/).) A reliquary is a receptacle, usually very precious, ornate and/or jewelled, to contain the relics of a saint and display them for the purposes of prayer or worship in the church which houses them.