Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fossil |
FossilAdjective1. Characteristic of a fossil. Noun1. (informal) someone whose style is out of fashion. 2. The remains (or an impression) of a plant or animal that existed in a past geological age and that has been excavated from the soil. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fossil" was first used: 1619. (references) |
Etymology: Fossil \Fos"sil\, adjective. [Latin fossilis, from fodere to dig: compare to French fossile. See Fosse.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | Fossil n. 1. In software, a misfeature that becomes understandable only in historical context, as a remnant of times past retained so as not to break compatibility. Example: the retention of octal as default base for string escapes in C, in spite of the better match of hexadecimal to ASCII and modern byte-addressable architectures. See dusty deck. 2. More restrictively, a feature with past but no present utility. Example: the force-all-caps (LCASE) bits in the V7 and BSD Unix tty driver, designed for use with monocase terminals. (In a perversion of the usual backward-compatibility goal, this functionality has actually been expanded and renamed in some later USG Unix releases as the IUCLC and OLCUC bits.) 3. The FOSSIL (Fido/Opus/Seadog Standard Interface Level) driver specification for serial-port access to replace the brain-dead routines in the IBM PC ROMs. Fossils are used by most MS-DOS BBS software in preference to the `supported' ROM routines, which do not support interrupt-driven operation or setting speeds above 9600; the use of a semistandard FOSSIL library is preferable to the bare metal serial port programming otherwise required. Since the FOSSIL specification allows additional functionality to be hooked in, drivers that use the hook but do not provide serial-port access themselves are named with a modifier, as in `video fossil'. Source: Jargon File. |
History & Folklore | Any remains, impression or trace of an animal or plant of past geological ages that has been preserved in the earth's crust. Source: European Union. (references) |
Geological | Mineralized remains or traces of organisms. (references) |
Mining | A. Any remains, trace, or imprint of a plant or animal that has been preserved in the Earth's crust since some past geologic or prehistoric time; loosely, any evidence of past life b. Said of any object that existed in the geologic past and of which there is still evidence c. Used in such expressions as fossil generating plant in reference to the use of fossil fuel rather than nuclear fuel. Not recommended usag. (references) |
Science | Hardened remains or traces of plant or animal life from a previous geological period preserved in the Earth's crust. (references) |
| The remains of a plant or animal that lived long ago. Fossils are found in sedimentary rocks. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Fossils are the mineralized remains of animals or plants or other artifacts such as footprints. The totality of fossils and their placement in rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record.Fossilization is a rare occurrence, because natural materials tend to be recycled. In order for an organism to be fossilized, the remains need to be covered by sediment as soon as possible. There are different types of fossils, and fossilization processes:
Permineralization
This process consists of literally turning an organism into stone. The organism gets covered by sediment soon after death, or after the initial decaying process. The degree in which the remains are decayed when covered, determines the later details of the fossil. Some fossils only consist of skeletal remains or teeth; other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. Once covered with sediment, these layers slowly compact to rock, after which the chemicals in the remains are slowly replaced with hard minerals.
Mould, cast and trace fossils
If percolating water dissolves the remains of an organism, and thereby leaves a hole, this is called a mould fossil. If this hole is filled with more minerals, it is called a cast fossil. If the burial of the organism was rapid, then chances are that even impressions of soft tissues remain. Trace fossils are the remains of track ways, burrows, footprints, eggs and shells, nests and droppings. The latter, called coprolites can give insight in the feeding behavior of animals, and can therefore be of great importance.
Resin fossils
Smaller animals, insects, spiders and small lizards, can be trapped in resin (amber), which oozes from trees. These fossils can be found in sand- or mudstones.
Pseudofossils
These are regular patterns in rocks, which are produced by natural occurring processes. They can easily be mistaken for real fossils. These fossils can be formed by naturally formed fissures in the rock that get filled up by percolating minerals. Other types of pseudofossils are kidney ore, round shapes in iron ore, and 'moss agates', which look like plant leaves.
Living fossils
A term used for any living species which closely resembles a species known from fossils, i.e., as if the fossil had "come to life". This may sometimes be a species known only from fossils until living representatives were discovered (the most famous example of this is the coelacanth fish (Latimeria chalumnae)). Other "living fossils" are the nut clams (Ennucula superba), Lingula anatina, an inarticulate brachiopod, and the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus).
Additional information see Fossils and the geological timescale
The study of fossils is called paleontology.
See also: fossil fuels, acritarchs, transitional_fossils Fossil is also the tradename of the manufacturer of a popular line of watches and jewelry in the United States. FOSSIL is the name of a protocol for serial communications.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fossil."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under DOS. FOSSIL stands for Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer and was made by a group of Fidonet sysops to make their software work on different machines.
External link
- Fundamentals of FOSSIL implementation and use
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "FOSSIL."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Fossil is a city located in Wheeler County, Oregon. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 469. It is the county seat of Wheeler County6.Geography
Fossil is located at 44°59'59" North, 120°12'51" West (44.999595, -120.214239)1. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.0 km² (0.8 mi²). 2.0 km² (0.8 mi²) of it is land and none of the area is covered with water.Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 469 people, 208 households, and 128 families residing in the city. The population density is 238.3/km² (614.5/mi²). There are 245 housing units at an average density of 124.5/km² (321.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 94.24% White, 0.00% African American, 1.28% Native American, 0.21% Asian, 0.21% Pacific Islander, 2.13% from other races, and 1.92% from two or more races. 3.62% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 208 households out of which 16.8% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% are married couples living together, 4.8% have a female householder with no husband present, and 38.0% are non-families. 33.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.18 and the average family size is 2.73. In the city the population is spread out with 18.1% under the age of 18, 4.7% from 18 to 24, 17.1% from 25 to 44, 32.8% from 45 to 64, and 27.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 52 years. For every 100 females there are 89.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 91.0 males. The median income for a household in the city is $30,250, and the median income for a family is $37,125. Males have a median income of $29,688 versus $20,893 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,236. 12.0% of the population and 12.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 9.2% are under the age of 18 and 3.3% are 65 or older.Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fossil, Oregon."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
FOSSIL | English | Fido Opus Seadog Standard Interface Layer | Computer - Computer - (SGML, CALS) |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonyms: FossilSynonyms: dodo (n), fogey (n), fogy (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Hardness | Stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant; bone, cartilage; hardware; heart of oak, block, board, deal board; iron, steel; cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron; nail; brick, concrete; cement. |
Oldness | Prime; primitive, primeval, primigenous; paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic; primordial, primordinate; aboriginal; (beginning); diluvian, antediluvian; protohistoric; prehistoric; antebellum, colonial, precolumbian; patriarchal, preadamite; paleocrystic; fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane; archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Thank God you'll be in one yourself before too long you bloody old fossil! (Death on the Nile; writing credit: Agatha Christie; Anthony Shaffer) Suitable haven for me. Well, perhaps that's what I'm destined to become, an interesting fossil for future study (The Petrified Forest; writing credit: Robert E. Sherwood; Charles Kenyon) Cash is the fossil fuel that keeps our economic pistons pumping (Home for the Holidays; writing credit: W.D. Richter) | |
Lyrics | There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall (King Of Pain; performing artist: The Police) | |
Clever | A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Oil - From Fossil to Flame (1987) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References |
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Books |
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Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | View of Sheep Rock Fossil Beds. Credit: Steve Lent. |  | Public Lands Day fossil demonstration by Joe Ross. Credit: Tammi Dooley. |
 | A surface fossil on Pilot Rock. (ACEC). Credit: Frank Lang. |  | A fossil location at Hutton Creek out next to Hutton Creek. Credit: Unknown. |
 | Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Credit: NPS. |  | Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Credit: NPS. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Fossil Butte" by Paige Foster Commentary: "Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming." | "Fossil" by Ariel C. Commentary: "Fossil." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Taxation of electricity also applies to nuclear production so that it does not have an advantage over fossil fuels. (references) | |
The NFFO, in conjunction with RECs and generators, have established wind power as a viable alternative to fossil fuel burning. (references) | ||
The Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) plans to upgrade existing generation facilities and to build new fossil thermal-fuel power plants. (references) | ||
Economic History | Netherlands | The price/performance ratio of wind turbines must be improved to compete with fossil fuels. (references) |
Russia | They possess some of Russia's most valuable resources, with minerals, fossil fuels and vast forests. (references) | |
Portugal | Portugal does not have its own fossil energy resources and the country imports 85% of the energy consumed. (references) | |
Trade | Switzerland | Prominent examples are the so-called "beer cartel," the "tobacco cartel," or the "chocolate cartel." Companies in the pharmaceutical and fossil fuel industries also have been scrutinized as well as legal and medical services. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | POPULIST, n. A fossil patriot of the early agricultural period, found in the old red soapstone underlying Kansas; characterized by an uncommon spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him the power of flight, though Professors Morse and Whitney, pursuing independent lines of thought, have ingeniously pointed out that had he possessed it he would have gone elsewhere. In the picturesque speech of his period, some fragments of which have come down to us, he was known as "The Matter with Kansas." |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Fossil" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fossil" is used about 895 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 895 | 7,971 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Country | Name |
| USA | Fossil Inc |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
1. Fossil, OR (city, FIPS 26650) |
Expressions using "fossil": Cork fossil ♦ derived fossil ♦ displaced fossil ♦ fossil bearing ♦ Fossil buttonmolds ♦ fossil copal ♦ Fossil cork ♦ Fossil farina ♦ fossil find ♦ Fossil flax ♦ fossil forest ♦ fossil fuel ♦ Fossil Fuels ♦ fossil meal ♦ fossil oil ♦ Fossil ore ♦ Fossil paper ♦ Fossil unicorn ♦ Fossil unicorn's horn ♦ fossil water ♦ fossil wax ♦ Fossil wood ♦ key fossil ♦ reworked fossil. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "fossil": fossil-based, fossil-bearing, fossil-encrusted, fossil-fired, fossil-fuel, fossil-fueled, fossil-fuelled, fossil-fuelled power station, fossil-hunter, fossil-hunters, fossil-like. | |
Ending with "fossil": non-fossil. | |
Containing "fossil": non-fossil-fuel. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
fossil | 2,516 | fossil watch band | 25 |
fossil watch | 1,851 | fossil record | 24 |
dinosaur fossil | 417 | course creek fossil golf | 24 |
fossil fuel | 328 | fossil pda | 23 |
fossil rim | 108 | john day fossil bed | 22 |
fossil handbag | 73 | fossil pda watch | 22 |
fossil park | 66 | fossil rock | 22 |
fossil sun glasses | 60 | fossil shark tooth | 22 |
fossil purse | 58 | fossil store | 21 |
fossil for sale | 58 | car fossil | 21 |
fossil picture | 58 | fossil creek golf club | 21 |
man fossil watch | 50 | fossil ohio park sylvania | 21 |
fossil of oregon | 47 | fossil creek golf | 21 |
fossil wallet | 41 | fossil lady watch | 20 |
fossil wrist pda | 40 | cheap fossil watch | 20 |
discount watch fossil | 37 | fossil blue watch | 19 |
fossil ohio park | 37 | fossil hunting | 19 |
fossil fish | 34 | florissant fossil bed | 19 |
fossil outlet | 33 | fossil watch repair | 19 |
fossil creek | 29 | fossil blue | 18 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "fossil"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | fossiel. (various references) | |
Albanian | fosili, fosil, i prapambetur (back, backward, barbaric, laggard, lagger). (various references) | |
Arabic | متحجر (antiquated, fanatic, fanatical, fogy, fusty, outmoded), مستحجر, حفوري, حفري (scorbutic), عتيق (age-old, ancient, hoary, musty, old, old fashioned, out of date, passe, prim, superannuated, time honored, time worn, used), الأحفور, بال (decomposed, decrepit, mangy, musty, old fashioned, outmoded, outworn, rotten, shabby, stale, threadbare, tired, trite, well worn, worn, worn out). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | старомоден (antiquated, archaic, corny, dowdy, fusty, hunker, moldy, obsolete, old fashioned, old hat, old time, out of date, outmoded, passe, primitive, quaint, square-toed, traditional), фосил, вкаменен (petrous), вкаменелост (fossilization, petrifaction), отживелица (anachronism, remnant, survival), закостенял човек, изкопаемо, изкопаем. (various references) | |
Chinese | 化石 . (various references) | |
Czech | fosilní, fosilie, zkamenìlina, zkamenìlý. (various references) | |
Danish | fossil, forstenet organisme. (various references) | |
Dutch | fossiel, verstening (petrification). (various references) | |
Esperanto | fosilio. (various references) | |
Farsi | فسیل , مربوطبادوارگذشته , سنگواره . (various references) | |
Finnish | kivettymä. (various references) | |
French | fossile (fossilization, fossilizes, fossil-like). (various references) | |
German | versteinerung (fossilization, hardening, petrifaction, petrification), fossil (fossilized). (various references) | |
Greek | απολίθωμα (petrifaction). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מאובן, אחפר. (various references) | |
Hungarian | kövület (fud, fuddy-duddy, petrifaction, petrification). (various references) | |
Indonesian | fosil. (various references) | |
Italian | fossile. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 化石 (fossilization, petrifaction), 化石 (fossilization, petrifaction). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | かせき (fossilization, petrifaction). (various references) | |
Korean | 화석. (various references) | |
Manx | fossyl. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ossilfay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | fóssil. (various references) | |
Romanian | fosilã, fosil. (various references) | |
Russian | ископаемое. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | fosilan, fosil. (various references) | |
Spanish | fósil. (various references) | |
Swedish | fossil, gammal stofil (fuddy-duddy). (various references) | |
Turkish | fosilleşmiş, fosil (petrifaction), taşlaşmış, taşıl, köhne (effete, fusty, musty, old, ramshackle, ratty, rickety, tumbledown, worn), eski kafalı kimse (antediluvian, back number, die hard, fogey, fogy, fuddy-duddy, old fogey, old fogy, Square), eski kafalı (conservative, fogeyish, fogyish, fuddy-duddy, fusty, grubby, narrow minded, old fashioned, old fogeyish, old fogyish, square-toed, superannuated). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | скам'янілість, скам'янілий (petrified), викопний, застарілий (antiquated, antique, archaic, chronic, decrepit, demoded, fusty, inveterate, moldy, mouldy, musty, obsolete, old, old fashioned, old hat, oldfangled, ole, out of date, outdated, outmoded, outworn, over age, overworn, passe, played out, rusty, superannuated, time worn, worm-eaten). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | vật lỗi thời (anachronism), vật hoá đá, vật cổ lỗ, người lỗi thời (anachronism), người hủ lậu (fogey, fogy, old-fogey, old-fogy), lỗi thời (mouldy, out of date, outdated, outmoded, out-of-date, square), hoá thạch người cổ lỗ, hoá thạch cổ lỗ, hoá đá. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | fossilis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fossil": fossiliferous, fossilise, fossilised, fossilises, fossilising, fossilization, fossilizations, fossilize, fossilized, fossilizes, fossilizing, fossils. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "fossil": macrofossil, microfossil, nonfossil, subfossil. (additional references) | |
Words containing "fossil": macrofossils, microfossils, subfossils, unfossiliferous. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fossil" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dosil, Fabsil, fasil, Fassi, Fesik, Fessal, fosal, fosel, Fosi, fosils, fossel, Fossi, fossile, fossiled, fossit, fosso, fossy, Possil. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fossil" (pronounced fÄ"sul) |
| 5 | f Ä" s u l | microfossil. |
| 4 | -Ä" s u l | apostle, colossal, docile, jostle. |
| 3 | -s u l | antimissile, Axel, axle, basal, brasil, bristle, bustle, cancel, capsule, Castle, consul, council, counsel, diesel, dismissal, dispersal, dorsal, epistle, facile, fissile, gracile, gristle, Hansel, Hassel, hassle, housel, hustle, imbecile, stencil, tassel, Tattersall, tensile, Tercel, missal, missel, missile, morsel, mucosal, muscle, mussel, Nestle, parcel, Passel, pencil, pixel, Proconsul, rehearsal, reversal, rustle, Thistle, tinsel, tonsil, Tressel, trestle, tussle, universal, unsell, utensil, vassal, vessel, whistle, wrestle. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-i-l-o-s-s" | |
-1 letter: filos, floss, foils, silos, soils. | |
-2 letters: filo, fils, foil, foss, loss, oils, silo, soil, soli, sols. | |
-3 letters: fil, ifs, lis, oil, sis, sol, sos. | |
-4 letters: if, is, li, lo, of, os, si, so. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-i-l-o-s-s" | |
+1 letter: flossie, fossils. | |
+2 letters: floosies, florists, flossier, flossies, flossily, flossing. | |
+3 letters: fishbolts, fishbowls, fishpoles, fissional, fistulous, flossiest, fluorosis, focalises, folksiest, foresails, fossilise, fossilize, fossorial, loftiness, nonfossil, shooflies, shoplifts, slipforms, subfossil. | |
+4 letters: blowfishes, coalfishes, flavorists, floppiness, floridness, flourishes, folksiness, foolfishes, foolishest, formalises, formalisms, formalists, fossilised, fossilises, fossilized, fossilizes, goldfishes, horseflies, houseflies, lionfishes, profitless, snowfields, solfeggios, solidifies, stoneflies, subfossils, sulfoniums, sulfoxides, ufologists, wolffishes. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Names: Company Usage 12. Cities | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Abbreviations 18. Acronyms 19. Derivations 20. Rhymes | 21. Anagrams 22. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
