# earthquake
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English erthequake, corresponding to earth +‎ quake. Displaced Middle English eorð byfung (“earthquake”) from Old English eorþbeofung (literally “earth shaking”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɜːθkweɪk/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈɝθkweɪk/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θkweɪk

### Noun

earthquake (plural earthquakes)
* A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults. [from 14th c.]
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:Her alablaster brest she soft did kis, / Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake, / As it an Earth-quake were: at last she thus bespake.
** 2006 October 6, Declan Walsh, The Guardian:Last year's earthquake crushed his house, his livelihood and very nearly his leg, he said, pointing to a plastered limb that refuses to heal.
* (planetary geology) Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies. [from 20th c.]
** 1988, Jürgen Oberst, Yosio Nakamura, “A seismic risk for the lunar base”, in The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, volume 1, NASA, pages 231–233:Since the response of some man-made structures to the ground motion near the epicenter is highly dependent on frequency, a significant difference in potential damage to the structures is expected between earthquakes and moonquakes.
** 2006, Bruce A. Bolt, Earthquakes, Fifth Edition:The wave patterns, too, are strikingly different: The secondary (S) waves and surface waves on lunar seismograms are not generally as clearly defined and distinct as are those of earthquakes.
* (figuratively) A sudden and intense upheaval; a severely disruptive event.
** 2019 July 11, John Thornhill, “Does tech threaten to rerun the worst of the Industrial Revolution?”, in Financial Times‎:As we have seen, economic earthquakes often result in political shockwaves. […] He highlights a correlation between those states with the highest robot density and those states that unexpectedly swung behind Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, namely Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
** 2024 March 20, Jon Henley, “Leo Varadkar steps down as Irish prime minister in shock move”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:Leo Varadkar has announced he is standing down as Ireland’s prime minister and also giving up his role as leader of the Fine Gael party in the ruling coalition, in a surprise move described by pundits as a “political earthquake” for the country.

#### Synonyms

* earthdin
* quake
* seism
* temblor
* terremote
* tremblor
* tremor

#### Derived terms

* antiearthquake
* birthquake
* earthquake baroque
* earthquake bomb
* earthquake dam
* earthquake engineering
* earthquakelike
* earthquake-prone
* earthquakeproof
* earthquake protector
* earthquake storm
* earthquaky
* footquake
* hurriquake
* megaearthquake
* microearthquake
* mirthquake
* non-earthquake
* paleoearthquake
* postearthquake
* slow earthquake

#### Related terms

* moonquake
* seaquake
* starquake

#### Translations
### Verb

earthquake (third-person singular simple present earthquakes, present participle earthquaking, simple past and past participle earthquaked)
* (intransitive) To undergo an earthquake.
** 1993, Gyeorgos C. Hatonn, The Best of Times: The Worst of Times, page 129:Watch the Philippines very closely for the next little while. There is rumbling and earthquaking deep within Pinatubo and increased earthquaking within Mayon.

### See also

* aftershock
* earthquake engineering
* fault line
* Richter scale
* seismic
* seismograph
* seismologist
* seismology
* tremor
* tsunami

### Further reading

* earthquake on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Tectonic hazards/Earthquake on Wikiversity.Wikiversity
* Category:Category:Animations of earthquake impact on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

### Anagrams

* heartquake

## Scots
### Etymology

Borrowed from English earthquake; compare yirdquauk.

### Noun

earthquake (plural earthquakes)
* earthquake
    Synonym: yirdquauk