Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog by J.Q. Rose.
Every day this month I'm posting a new word for all you Word Nerds during the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. Join me as we journey through the alphabet!!
~ vestigial~
adjective
adjective: vestigial
forming a very small remnant of something that was once much larger or more noticeable.
"he felt a vestigial flicker of anger from last night"
o BIOLOGY
(of an organ or part of the body) degenerate, rudimentary, or atrophied, having become functionless in the course of evolution.
"the vestigial wings of kiwis are entirely hidden"
Dictionary.com
I was familiar with the noun form of this word, vestige. Dictionary.com defines vestige as “a trace of something that is disappearing or no longer exists”.
"the last vestiges of colonialism"
Storyteller Pat Conroy introduced me to vestigial in his excellent memoir, The Water is Wide. the story based on his work as a teacher on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina. (named Yamacraw Island in the book.)
Conroy's living quarters was an old house inhabited with all kinds of pests. In this scene, he is awakened when he feels something on his foot.
"The room was black as pitch, silent, with the vestigial odor of mildew left from days of noninhabitation.”
When he turned on the lamp, he watched “the rat move like bald-tailed lightning across the room and out the door.” The whole scene made me shudder and I felt his fear when he wrote: “I had shared my pillow with the animal I feared most.” Powerful, electric writing.
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| rat |
If you’re interested in reading memoirs, a fan of Pat Conroy or just want to enjoy a good read, I would recommend this book.
This A to Z Challenge, while writing about words that fascinate me or played a part in my life experience, has introduced me to new words as different forms of the word. Kind of perk in the research.
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I’m a life-long learner. Are you too? We’ll never know it all, and that’s probably “a good thing,” as my friend Elaine would say. Thanks for visiting today.
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