tectonic

Etymology

1650s, in sense of building, from Late Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós, “pertaining to building”), from Ancient Greek τέκτων (téktōn, “carpenter, joiner, maker”), from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to make”) (from which also texture). In sense of geology, attested 1894. Surface analysis is τέκτων (téktōn) + -ic (“pertaining to”).

adj

1. Of or relating to construction or to architecture
2. (biology) Structural
3. (geology) Of, relating to, or caused by large-scale movements of the Earth's (or a similar planet's) lithosphere
   A boiling hot rock planet with extreme tectonic activity, Parnassus is home to many volcanic mountains. Surface scans reveal several geothermal and solar power stations, tapping the planet's abundant energy. 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Parnassus
   At some point, Venus may have had its own form of plate tectonics – possibly different from the plate tectonics here on Earth. Water and rock measurements obtained from the DAVINCI mission, combined with the Venus global mapping information by NASA’s VERITAS mission, another recently selected mission to Venus that is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, can be used to decipher how these tectonic patterns may have operated on Venus, and why the planet was unable to sustain them in a fashion similar to Earth. Oct 20, 2021, “NASA’s DAVINCI Explores Ten Mysteries of Venus”, in NASA, archived from the original on 2021-10-20
4. (figurative) momentous, utter, vast
   But it would be a mistake to imagine that we are benignly coming full circle, or even that we are finding that the old ways are still the most efficient. A tectonic shift has occurred. November 21 2019, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian