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Hercynian

British  
/ hɜːˈsɪnɪən /

adjective

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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

Encomium, 186.Editions good and bad, 69-70.Elks, the Hercynian, 250.Elzeviers,

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

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

The region therefore between the Hercynian Forest and the rivers Moenus and Rhine, was occupied by the Helvetians; as was that beyond it by the Boians, both nations of Gaul.

From Tacitus on Germany by Gordon, Thomas

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