Hercynian

British  

/ hɜːˈsɪnɪən /

adjective

1. denoting a period of mountain building in Europe in the late Palaeozoic

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Etymology

Origin of Hercynian

C16: from Latin Hercynia silva the Hercynian forest (i.e., the wooded mountains of central Germany, esp the Erzgebirge)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Hercynian

And I can so well understand the Romans, their terror of the bristling Hercynian wood.

From Fantasia of the Unconscious by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)

They flocked from the Hercynian forests, away off in Bohemia or Hungary, and swarmed over the Alps; they followed the river Po in its course, and they came into the region of the Apennines too.

From The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic by Gilman, Arthur

Most of us will remember reading Caesar's description of the elks in the Hercynian forest, which slept leaning up against the trees because they had no joints in their legs.

From The Book-Hunter at Home by Allan, P. B. M.

Hercynian, her-sin′i-an, adj. of or pertaining to the forest-covered mountain region of northern Germany—apart the Harz Mountains.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

The above comprise all the mountain ranges in the northern hemisphere of any prominence, or which have received distinctive names, except the Hercynian Mountains, on the north-east limb, east of the walled plain Otto Struve.

From The Moon A Full Description and Map of its Principal Physical Features by Elger, Thomas Gwyn