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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
pal·imp·sest    Audio Help   [pal-imp-sest] Pronunciation Key
–noun
a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

[Origin: 1655–65; < L palimpséstus < Gk palímpséstos rubbed again (pálin again + pséstós scraped, rubbed, verbid of psân to rub smooth)]

pal·imp·ses·tic, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
palimpsest

To learn more about palimpsest visit Britannica.com

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
pal·imp·sest    Audio Help   (pāl'ĭmp-sěst')  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
  2. 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).


[Latin palimpsēstum, from Greek palimpsēston, neuter of palimpsēstos, scraped again : palin, again; see kwel-1 in Indo-European roots + psēn, to scrape.]

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
palimpsest 
"parchment from which earlier writing has been removed to clear it for new writing," 1661, from L. palimpsestus, from Gk. palimpsestos "scraped again," from palin "again" (see palindrome) + verbal adj. of psen "to rub smooth" (of unknown origin).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
palimpsest

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 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Palimpsest

Pal"imp*sest\, n. [L. palimpsestus, Gr. ? scratched or scraped again, ? a palimpsest; ? again + ? to rub, rub away: cf. F. palimpseste.] A parchment which has been written upon twice, the first writing having been erased to make place for the second. --Longfellow.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

palimpsest

palimpsest was Word of the Day on January 2, 2000.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day
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