tectonic

Meaning

Adjective

• Of or relating to construction or to architecture
• Structural
• Of, relating to, or caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's lithosphere
• momentous, utter, vast

Origin

• 1650s, in sense of building, from Late Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός ("pertaining to building"), from Ancient Greek τέκτων ("carpenter, joiner, maker"), from Proto-Indo-European *tek- ("to make") (from which also texture). In sense of geology, attested 1894. Surface analysis is τέκτων -ic.