palimpsest
“
An obliterated manuscript written over again is called a palimpsest, and the man who can restore and read it a paleographist.
View all »Definitions (6)
American Heritage Dictionary (2)
- noun A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
- noun An object, place, or area that reflects its history: "Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins” (John McPhee).
Century Dictionary (2)
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet (1)
Elsewhere on the web
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- Aye, in truth I felt like a palimpsest ere that hour was done. — The High Crusade
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An obliterated manuscript written over again is called a palimpsest, and the man who can restore and read it a paleographist.
— The Book-Hunter A New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author -
So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is French scenery, so multifarious the points of view called up at every town, that hurry and scurry leave us hardly better informed than when we set out.
— In the Heart of the Vosges And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" -
So rich a palimpsest is French civilization, so varied is
— In the Heart of the Vosges And Other Sketches by a "Devious Traveller" -
a palimpsest is my brain; such a palimpsest, O reader! is yours.
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 357, June, 1845
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View all »Etymologies (3)
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
- Latin palimpsēstum, from Greek palimpsēston, neuter of palimpsēstos, scraped again : palin, again; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots + psēn, to scrape.
Century Dictionary (1)
GNU Webster's 1913 (1)
WordNet
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Pronunciations
/ (pălˈĭmp-sĕstˌ)/
by
American Heritage Dictionary