Earth & SkyGreek → English
Tectonics
/tɛkˈtɑːnɪks/noun
The study of the structure of the earth's crust and the movement of its plates.
The Greek roots
τέκτων
téktōn
carpenter, builder
τεκτονικός
tektonikós
of building
Literally: “pertaining to construction”
The story of the word
τέκτων is the ordinary Greek word for a builder in wood, and it is the trade the Gospels give Joseph. Geologists borrowed the adjective in the nineteenth century because folded strata look built, and the noun settled into the language for good after plate tectonics was assembled in the 1960s. An ἀρχιτέκτων, chief builder, is the same word wearing a title.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → German → English
- First recorded
- 1890s
Same family
architectarchitecturetectonic
In a sentence
Plate tectonics explained the mid-ocean ridges and the earthquake belts in one stroke.