exaptation

Etymology
. Coined 1982 by palaeontologists and  to avoid the perceived teleological baggage of the existing term.

Noun

 * 1)  The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.
 * 2)  The promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work.
 * 3) * 2017, Eric Haeberli, Review of Ledgeway & Roberts (eds.) (2017), Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax, Journal of Historical Syntax, Volume 3, Article 4, 2019, PDF edition page 2
 * The process Haiman focuses on is exaptation, which he defines as "the promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work" (p52).
 * 1)  The promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work.
 * 2) * 2017, Eric Haeberli, Review of Ledgeway & Roberts (eds.) (2017), Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax, Journal of Historical Syntax, Volume 3, Article 4, 2019, PDF edition page 2
 * The process Haiman focuses on is exaptation, which he defines as "the promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work" (p52).
 * The process Haiman focuses on is exaptation, which he defines as "the promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work" (p52).

Translations

 * Italian: exattamento,