palimpsest
pronunciation
How to pronounce palimpsest in British English:
UK [ˈpælɪmpsest]
How to pronounce palimpsest in American English:
US ['pælɪmpsest]
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- Noun:
- a manuscript (usually written on papyrus or parchment) on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible
Word Origin
- palimpsest (n.)
- "parchment from which earlier writing has been removed to clear it for new writing," 1660s, from Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsestos "scraped again," from palin "again" (see palindrome) + verbal adjective of psen "to rub smooth" (of uncertain origin).
Example
- 1. The spilite is greyish-green , display massive structure and locally pillow structures with palimpsest interweave texture and intergranular texture .
- 2. The surface sand layer ( 0 ~ 2 cm ) consists of residual or palimpsest sediments which were formed in the late Pleistocene and transformed in the post glacial transgression .
- 3. He examined without wrath , and with the eye of a linguist who is deciphering a palimpsest , that portion of chaos which still exists in nature .