plutonic
adjEtymology From pluton(ium) + -ic.
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Chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Containing plutonium in a higher oxidation state.
- Derived terms
- nonplutonic
- Related terms
- plutonous
Plutonic
adjalso spelled PlutonicUK /pluːˈtɒnɪk/ · US /pluˈtɑnɪk/
Etymology From Ancient Greek Πλούτων (Ploútōn, “Pluto, Greek and Roman god of the underworld”) (from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “riches, wealth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; to flow; to run”)) + -ων (-ōn)) + -ic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). The English word is cognate with Middle French plutonique (modern French plutonique (“of or pertaining to Pluto, the underworld, or the interior of the Earth”)).
1
Human sciences, Mysticism, Mythology, Philosophy, Sciences Greek, Roman Synonym of Plutonian (“of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld; demonic, infernal”).
2
Broadly Synonym of Plutonian (“of, relating to, or having characteristics associated with the underworld; dark, gloomy; mournful”).
- a dark, handsome lady, of no little majesty, and rather like a plutonic Madonna1911, G. K. Chesterton, “The Sins of Prince Saradine”, in The Innocence of Father Brown:
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Chemistry, Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Broadly Of or pertaining to rocks formed deep in the Earth's crust, rather than by volcanoes at the surface of the Earth.
- These cliffs, I may remark, are basaltic, and therefore plutonic.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
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Geography, Geology, Natural sciences Broadly, Historical Of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism (“the theory that the rocks of the Earth were formed in fire by volcanic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion, then deposited on the sea bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and raised again”).