How often have you found yourself wanting to reuse a piece of paper? Have you ever gone to the extreme of erasing something entirely from the sheet so that the paper could be re-purposed? Did you know that there is a word for this? Apparently in the Seventeenth Century (when this particular word originated) this practice was commonplace. I’ve heard of painters re-purposing their canvases (and painting over existing images), and it makes perfect sense that that the same could be done with a parchment or manuscript, especially if there were a limited supply. I remember doing this very thing during my childhood. However, while I was able to erase the words, the impressions in the paper were still there and somewhat discernible. Even today, in the computer age, you can erase a file, but is it really gone (completely)? Is there a digital fingerprint left behind somewhere? An intricate palimpsest of characters hidden on your computer awaiting discovery? Hmm, something to ponder while I continue to build my vocabulary.
palimpsest
\PAL-imp-sest\, noun;
Tags: Erase, Overlay, Palimpsest, Reuse, Vocabulary
