Jump to content

telluric

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

A borrowing of French tellurique, from Latin tellus (earth; earthy) and Tellus (Earth, Gaia) and -ique (forming adjectives). Subsequently also from tellurium, originally in telluric oxide from German Telluroxyd.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

[edit]

telluric (comparative more telluric, superlative most telluric)

  1. Pertaining to the Earth, earthly.
    Synonyms: earthly, terrestrial, tellurian, terrene
    • 1981, Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler:
      My sister always says she loves novels where you feel an elemental strength, primordial, telluric.
  2. (chemistry) Containing tellurium in a lower valency than in tellurous compounds.

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

telluric (plural tellurics)

  1. Synonym of telluric current
    • 1964, United States. National Bureau of Standards, Technical News Bulletin, volumes 48-49, page 131:
      Other projects in progress at CRPL involve the study of audiofrequency tellurics (current induced in the earth) and earth conductivity measurements using atmospherics.

See also

[edit]