Neptunian
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: geography
geology
human-sciences
mysticism
mythology
natural-sciences
philosophy
sciences
Etymology: From Latin Neptūnius (“of or pertaining to the Roman god Neptune”), from Neptūnus (“the Roman god Neptune”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ- (“to become damp, cloudy”)) + -ius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); analysable as Neptune + -ian. The English word is cognate with French neptunien (“pertaining to the Roman god Neptune, pertaining to the sea, pertaining to Neptunism, Neptunian; proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”), German Neptunier (“proponent of Neptunism, Neptunist”).
Base: Neptune
Affixes: -ian
Inflected forms:
form: neptunian
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: Neptunians
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: neptunian
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Of or pertaining to Neptune, the Roman god of fresh water and the sea, the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.
pos: adj
tags: Roman
not-comparable
examples: Near-synonym: Poseidonian
The Tomb disburd'ning, whence the Ghoſt aroſe / Of great Achilles; Such when Thracian Foes / (The Prelude of thy Fates, Troy!) he o'rethrew, / And the white hair'd Neptunian Cycnus [i.e., Neptune's son] ſlew.
gloss: Of or pertaining to water or the sea.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
not-comparable
rare
examples: Tyrian garbs, / Neptunian Albion's high teſtaceous food [i.e., oysters], / And flavour'd Chian wines with incenſe fum'd / To ſlake Patrician thirſt: for theſe, their rights / In the vile ſtreets they proſtitute to ſale; / Their ancient rights, their dignities, their laws, / Their native glorious freedom.
Where the inſulting ſtreams of Chaos roar, / Where boiſt'rous waves the rugged ſhores ſurround, / And ſtorms and whirlwinds in the air abound, / There meet two rivals of Neptunian race, / Hoſtilities begin with fierce grimace: [...]
Since lately the Neptunian admiral (Sextus Pompeius) when driven from the sea, fled with his burnt ships, having menaced those chains to Rome, which as a friend he had taken off from perfidious slaves.
gloss: Formed by the action of water.
pos: adj
tags: broadly
not-comparable
examples: neptunian dyke
A special character of these mounds [the Kess-Kess carbonate mud mounds] is the numerous Neptunian dikes. These are fracture systems, which have been filled with other sediments and minerals. It is suspected that these dikes represent spring conduits (seeps) during the formation of the mounds, and that the seeping fluids were of a hydrothermal nature [...].
gloss: Of, pertaining to, or supporting Neptunism (“a discredited theory that rocks were formed from the crystallisation of minerals in the early Earth's oceans”).
pos: adj
tags: broadly
historical
not-comparable
examples: In the Neptunian ſyſtem it is ſuppoſed that the poſitions of the ſtrata have been determined, partly by the figure of the baſe or ground on which they have been depoſited, and partly by their depoſition having been a ſpecies of cryſtallization.
In several important cases, it is difficult to determine to what degree the metamorphosis has extended, since it remains uncertain whether the form and structural relations of the mountain-mass are to be considered as remains of the neptunian sedimentary formation, or as a product of the metamorphosis itself; for the original form of the neptunian, as well as of the volcanic sedimentary rocks have often become so changed by erosion, and so much alike in both classes of rocks, that this distinctive character is wholly lost; [...]
gloss: A sailor.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: You braue Neptunians, you ſalt water crew, / Sea-plowing Marriners; I ſpeake to you: [...]
gloss: A proponent of Neptunism.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: We are not ourselves, bigotted Neptunians or Vulcanians: we perceive difficulties whichever theory be adopted: and provided the earth be but stable under us, we are not anxiously jealous for the dignity of the trident-wielding power, or for the honour of the hammer-working deity.
Its [obsidian's] origin is warmly contested between the Neptunians and Plutonians, many of the latter denominating it a vitreous lava.
As to the two theories, neither will suffice alone. The neptunian is utterly inadequate to explain the phenomena of basalt; nor can a vulcanist account for the appearance of an hydrophane.—We need both explanations. Those geologists who have travelled in the north of Europe, are generally neptunians; those who have made their observations in the south of the same regions, are generally vulcanists.
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