premorse (pri-MORS) adjective
Having the end abruptly truncated, as if bitten or broken off.[From Latin praemorsus, from praemordere (to bite in front), from prae-
(before), mordere (to bite). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mer-
(to rub away or to harm) that is also the source of morse, mordant,
amaranth, morbid, mortal, mortgage, and nightmare.]
-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)
“As I looked over the water, I saw the isles rapidly wasting away, the sea nibbling voraciously at the continent, the springing arch of a hill suddenly interrupted, as at Point Alderton—what botanists might call premorse,—showing, by its curve against the sky, how much space it must have occupied, where now was water only.” Henry David Thoreau; Cape Cod; 1865.
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