Miocene, a. Geol.
(ˈmaɪəsiːn)
Also meiocene.
[irreg. f. Gr. µείων less + καινός new, recent.]
1. The epithet applied to the middle division of the Tertiary strata (as containing remains of fewer now existing species than the Pliocene), and to the geological period which it represents.
| 1831 [see eocene a. 1]. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 54 The next antecedent tertiary epoch we shall name Miocene. 1877 Nature 7 June 101/2 The European miocene flora. 1880 Dawkins Early Man i. 10 The Meiocene group. |
2. quasi-n.
| 1882 Geikie Text Bk. Geol. vi. iv. iii. §1. 862 The flora indicates a decidedly tropical climate in the earlier part of the Miocene. 1885 Athenæum 24 Oct. 541/1 The..Eppelsheim deposits in Germany are still left in the miocene. |
Hence Mioˈcenic a.
| 1863 Lyell Antiq. Man xv. 314 Between the close of the miocenic and the commencement of the glacial epoch. 1889 Lancet 6 July 45/1 A gigantic animal of the middle of the miocenic period of the Wyoming. |