Neptunist
(ˈnɛptjuːnɪst)
[f. Neptune + -ist.]
† 1. A nautical person. Obs. rare.
| 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 290 Let..fine Dædalist, skilful Neptunist, maruelous Vulcanist..be respected [etc.]. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. *iv, The Neptunist, of windes, of stormes, and of tempest,..can talke best. |
2. An asserter of the Neptunian or aqueous origin of certain geological formations.
| 1802 Edin. Rev. I. 201 Its author cannot be considered either as a Vulcanist purely, or a Neptunist. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 346 The confidence with which the contending Neptunists and Vulcanists in the last century dogmatized on the igneous or aqueous origin of certain rocks. 1856 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. 65 The Wernerians or Neptunists contended strenuously for the aqueous origin of all the old rock-formations. |
| attrib. or as adj. 1863 Spencer Ess. II. 60 This Neptunist hypothesis..was quite untenable if analyzed. 1905 A. Geikie Founders of Geol. (ed. 2) viii. 262 He would have run some risk of being regarded as having gone over to the Neptunist camp. 1951 C. C. Gillispie Genesis & Geol. ii. 44 The Neptunist synthesis explained stratification by postulating that all rock formations had been precipitated from an aqueous solution and suspension. 1965 M. Smith Essent. Mod. Geol. vi. 101 Considerable controversy existed in the eighteenth century until the Vulcanists, led by Nicholas Desmarest, finally overcame the opposition of the Neptunists. |