Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪱 Soil from worms 🦴 Worm trail fossil
wormcast

wormcast

9.9
A hard winding mark left by a worm long ago in rock or soil
  • noun
  • /ˈwɜrmˌkæst/
  • Specialized
: traza de gusano
  • The paleontologist carefully examined the wormcast embedded in the rock formation.

Examples

  • This museum display includes several examples of ancient wormcast fossils.

  • The paleontologist carefully examined the wormcast embedded in the rock formation.

  • Children often find wormcasts on the surface of the soil after a rainstorm.

  • Look at that wormcast over there!

  • What a beautiful wormcast!

  • This museum display includes several examples of ancient wormcast fossils.

  • Children often find wormcasts on the surface of the soil after a rainstorm.

Surface Forms

wormcast singular
wormcasts plural

Morphology

wormcast = worm + cast (semi-transparent) = worm + cast

The components are clear, but the sense of a fossilized or hardened trail is a metaphorical or specialized extension of 'cast' that is not fully predictable from the base words alone.

Etymology

The word wormcast can also mean a hardened or fossil 'cast' left by a worm, and here cast means 'a shape left behind'. So a fossil wormcast is the preserved winding mark a worm made in soil or rock.