Word of the Day

Friday, April 15, 2005

extant

\EK-stunt; ek-STANT\ , adjective;

Still existing; not destroyed, lost, or extinct.

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Quotes:

Why, then, did the joint House-Senate committee insert a maximum? The lack of extant records of the committee's deliberations requires us to speculate.

-- Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights

The fossil record shows clearly that ancient life was very different from extant life.

-- Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle

Origin:

Extant comes from Latin exstare, "to stand out, to project, hence to be prominent, to be visible, to exist," from ex-, "out" + stare, "to stand."