Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to the forest-covered mountain-system of Germany. The word varied greatly in its application. Some ancient geographers made it cover a large part of Germany, while later writers restricted it to Bohemia, Moravia, etc.
- In geology: Applied to a division of the Precambrian crystalline rocks in Westphalia, termed by Gümbel the Hercynian gneiss, lying above more highly altered rocks, and beneath those which are less altered and consist of mica schists and shales.
- First applied to the lowest Devonian strata of the Harz Mountains and Westphalia, but subsequently restricted so as to refer to the calcareous or deeper water facies of these early Devonian rocks and their organic contents.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to an extensive forest in Germany, of which there are still portions in Swabia and the Hartz mountains.
Etymologies
- Latin Hercynia silva, Hercynius saltus, the Hercynian forest; compare Ancient Greek. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Römer_, Pt.iii. 410), that the term Hercynian forest was not always used by the ancients to denote the same wooded tract.”
“The formation of Altai mountainous region began in Caledonian-Hercynian period almost 200 millions years ago.”
“Hercynian rock; and all together were shaken with fear of her cry; for terribly crashed the mighty firmament.”
“It is made up of two units: old metamorphic rocks formed during the Caledonian orogenesis, 400-450 million years old and granitic intrusions formed during the Hercynian orogenesis, 300-350 million years ago.”
“These mountains are part of the western Iberian old Hercynian system, which constitutes medium elevations with a smooth relief, scarcely influenced by the Alpine orogeny.”
“Nor is it for nothing that the grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the mountainous borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language and our theologic arts.”
“Nor is it for nothing that the grave and frugal Transylvanian sends out yearly from as far as the mountainous borders of Russia, and beyond the Hercynian wilderness, not their youth, but their staid men, to learn our language, and our theologic arts.”
“Cimmerians, saying they 'live in a dark and woody country hardly penetrable by the sunbeams, the trees are so close and thick, extending into the interior as far as the Hercynian forest.”
The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian
“Hercynian mountains, which are the greatest in height and extent about that region.”
“At first Boiorix was going to send them in a straight line through the great German forests — the Hercynian, Gabreta, and so on — and have them strike south through Pannonia into Noricum.”
The First Man in Rome
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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