vestige

plural vestiges

1. A mark left on the earth by a foot.

   Synonyms: trace, sign, track, footstep, footprint

2. broadlyA faint mark or visible sign left by something which is lost, or has perished, or is no longer present.

   vestiges of former population

   5 more examples

   the vestiges of ancient magnificence in Palmyra

   The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,— no prospect of an end.

   1788, James Hutton, Theory of the earth, page 166

   Her face was without a vestige of colour, but it only showed more strongly the perfect outline of her features. Pale she was, but not like a statue; it was a human paleness—passionate and painful.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Letters Restored”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 218

   Nevertheless in some cases, my original view, that the points are vestiges of the tips of formerly erect and pointed ears, still seems to me probable.

   1871, Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, Chapter I

   Only ragged vestiges of glass remained in its windows, and great sheets of the green facing had fallen away from the corroded metallic framework.

   1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter VIII

   Synonyms: remains

3. biologyA vestigial organ; a non-functional organ or body part that was once functional in an evolutionary ancestor.

   Now this paired organ of Jacobsen began in reptiles and is well developed in many mammals. But in man it is a vestige, often disappearing altogether; and the two openings are closed.

   1932, John Arthur Thomson, Riddles of science, Ayer Publishing, page 824

   2 more examples

   Any person seeing such a condition could not help being frightened at the conditions found, and it seems to me that that fact should lead us to think that the appendix is a vestige or becoming so.

   1904, Transactions of the […] annual session, volume 40, Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, page 160

   This idea was confirmed by Scott, who performed a detailed comparative analysis of primate anatomy and demonstrated conclusively that the appendix is derived for some unidentified function and is not a vestige.

   2007, R. Randal Bollingera, Andrew S. Barbasa, Errol L. Busha, Shu S. Lina, William Parkera, “Biofilms in the large bowel suggest an apparent function of the human vermiform appendix,”, in Journal of Theoretical Biology

4. broadcastingThe remaining portion of a partially suppressed sideband.

   [J]ust a trace, or vestige, of the other sideband is included. In the receiver detection circuitry the vestige of the lower sideband is added to the upper sideband.

   2003, Tarmo Anttalainen, Introduction to Telecommunications Network Engineering, page 133