sialic meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

sialic

adj

Etymology From Ancient Greek σίαλον (síalon, “spittle, saliva”) + -ic.

Of or pertaining to saliva.

Of or pertaining to sialic acid or its derivatives.

Derived terms: oligosialic, pentasialic, polysialic, sialoquent, tetrasialic

adj

Etymology From sial + -ic.

Geography, Geology, Natural sciences, Petrology Composed predominantly of silica- and alumina-bearing minerals such as quartz and feldspar.

Near-synonym: ensialic
The total volume of these felsic rocks, variously estimated at 3 to 9 percent of the Cenozoic section, is much greater in Iceland than on other oceanic islands, and their abundance led early geologists to speculate that Iceland might be a small continental fragment covered by a thin veneer of basalt. Geophysical and petrologic evidence now rules out any possibility of sialic crust under the island. The siliceous differentiates have little or no potassium feldspar and differ from typical continental rhyolites and granites in their trace-element abundances and isotopic ratios.2007, Alexander R. McBirney, Igneous Petrology, Jones & Bartlett Learning, page 343: