skiamorph
n.— «Survivals of this sort are known as “skiamorphs” (shadow shapes), and in one form or another they are very common in technology. A modern instance is the survival of timber graining on the surfaces of plastic mouldings and furniture.…The development of the Watson steam yacht is a splendid example of a successful skiamorph.̷For his fully powered vessels Watson retained, not only the graceful “clipper” bow of the sailing ship, but also the now functionless bowsprit.» —by J.E. Gordon Structures Sept. 1, 1978. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...