English Explanatory Dictionary

tectonic

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of or relating to construction or to architecture.
  2. Structural.
  3. Of, relating to, or caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's (or a similar planet's) lithosphere.
  4. Momentous, utter, vast.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tectonic.wav

Word forms

tectonic

Etymology

1650s, in sense of building, from Late Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós, “pertaining to building”), from Ancient Greek τέκτων (téktōn, “carpenter, joiner, maker”), from Proto-Indo-European *teḱ- (“to make”) (from which also texture). In sense of geology, attested 1894. By surface analysis, Ancient Greek τέκτων (téktōn) + -ic (“pertaining to”).

Related words

lithotectonic tectonics

Derived words

geotectonic glaciotectonic morphotectonic neotectonic nontectonic orthotectonic palaeotectonic paleotectonic paratectonic plumbotectonic posttectonic seismotectonic sematectonic syntectonic tectonically tectonicist tectonic keratoplasty tectonic plate tectonic uplift tectonic weapon
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on T Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary