skiamorph
n.— «I got the word, and the concept behind it, from a book on materials science that I long ago mislaid. “Skiamorph” comes from the Greek for “shadow” (skia) and “form” (morphe). My long-lost book coined it for the unnecessary holdovers that show up when new technologies displace existing ones.» —“One person’s Rolodex is another person’s electronic skiamorph” by Bill Atkinson Gloe and Mail (Toronto, Can.) Feb. 10, 1996. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Birds inhabit many English words and phrases. The flower called larkspur is named for the way its blossom resembles the spur on the toe of a lark. Columbine derives from Latin columba, “dove,” a reference to the way this flower resembles...
The new Downton Abbey movie is a luscious treat for fans of the public-television period piece, but how accurate is the script when it comes to the vocabulary of the early 20th century? It may be jarring to hear the word swag, but it was already at...