rhizoverbBeta
DictionaryholdoverRemaining from an earlier period
noun / adjective

holdover

HOHLD-oh-vur/ˈhəʊldəʊvər/

Someone or something that remains from an earlier period.

The brass telephone beside the laptop is a holdover from another era.

An old brass telephone remains on a modern office desk beside a laptop, a holdover from an earlier era.
Etymology
holdOld Englishto retain, continue
+overOld Englishbeyond, past

To hold over is to continue beyond an expected endpoint. The noun first referred to legislators continuing from a previous session, then broadened to any person or thing remaining from an earlier time.

In context

Funeral Channel Network4:57
the original bugle call for lights out, the one they were using before taps even existed, was actually a holdover from an existing French bugle call
Why Taps Is Played At A Military Funeral

More examples

  • Two holdover members help the new committee get started.
  • That rule is a holdover from the company's early days.
  • These paper forms are holdovers from before we switched to computers.

Forms

holdover · holdovers

Similar words

remnant
Emphasizes a leftover part rather than something still serving.
relic
Usually suggests an old object rather than a continuing employee.