a. [ad. late L. tectonicus, a. Gr. τεκτονικός pertaining to building, f. τέκτων, -ον-, carpenter, builder.]
1. Of or pertaining to building, or construction in general; constructional, constructive: used esp. in reference to architecture and kindred arts.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Tectonick (tectonicus), of or belonging to a builder.
1864. Daily Tel., 1 Aug. That law of necessity and of demand which is at the foundation of all tectonic art.
1903. G. B. Brown, Arts in Early Eng., II. 178. A form produced … by the exigencies of construction—or, to use a convenient term familiar in Germany, a tectonic form.
2. Geol. Belonging to the actual structure of the earth’s crust, or to general changes affecting it.
1894. Boyd-Dawkins, in Geol. Mag., Oct., 459. The relation existing between the tectonic anticlines and synclines in the districts of South Wales, Gloucester, and the West of England.
1902. Ld. Avebury, Scenery Eng., 213. The primary configuration of the country’s surface is no doubt due to tectonic causes.
1905. Athenæum, 1 April, 404/3. Whilst the most powerful and destructive disturbances are of this tectonic character, many other earthquakes are no doubt connected with volcanic phenomena.
So Tectonics [= Ger. tektonik], term for the constructive arts in general; † Tectonist (obs. nonce-wd.), a constructor, a builder.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., II. xx. (1865), 106. As is their husbands occasion these poor tectonists [the squaws] are often troubled like snailes, to carrie their houses on their backs.
1850. Leitch, trans. C. O. Müller’s Anc. Art, § 22. A series of arts which form and perfect vessels, implements, dwellings, and places of assembly…. We call this class of artistic activities tectonics.
