A word which does not literally refer directly to the vanished objects but can work in the example phrase by metonymy is memories. A web search for just memories now turns up many prior examples of this usage. E.g.
Eastman Kodak and Polaroid are just memories now.
from Kirby Engineering: West Coast Project by George Clapper. The companies are not literally memories, but since memories are all that remain* he can figuratively say that they are.
* Not literally true either, but that's not the point.
Answer from Peter Taylor on Stack ExchangeA word which does not literally refer directly to the vanished objects but can work in the example phrase by metonymy is memories. A web search for just memories now turns up many prior examples of this usage. E.g.
Eastman Kodak and Polaroid are just memories now.
from Kirby Engineering: West Coast Project by George Clapper. The companies are not literally memories, but since memories are all that remain* he can figuratively say that they are.
* Not literally true either, but that's not the point.
Hard to think of a noun but there are plenty of adjectives, for better or worse.
Obsolete? Extinct? Nonextant?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonextant: adjective : no longer existing or accessible through loss or destruction e.g., nonextant records
In short I’m writing a story about a thing or a person that exists but does not at the same time. I have scoured the web and come up empty handed so any help would be great!
Much like how pronouns classify words that can function by themselves as noun phrases and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g., I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse. Is there a word to describe "made up words" like Unicorn, Dragon, etc. Concepts that don't exist in the real world?