Keraunic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to thunder, lightning, or the thunderbolt, especially in the sense of the natural phenomena that produce them
2. Describing something connected with thunderstorms, lightning strikes, or the bolts of electricity that flash through the sky
3. Pertaining to the thunderbolt and to the lightning and thunder that accompany a storm

Etymology: "Keraunic" comes from Ancient Greek "keraunos," meaning thunderbolt or thunder, with the English suffix "-ic" added to form an adjective. Greek writers used "keraunos" for the bolt hurled by Zeus, so the word has always carried a sense of violent, sky-borne force. The word's sense is therefore built directly on its Greek core rather than on a later English coinage. English took the Greek stem and attached the familiar "-ic" ending, which turns a noun into a description of something relating to it. The result is a technical adjective: a keraunic phenomenon is one connected with thunder, lightning, or the thunderbolt as a natural event, stripped of the mythological figure who once wielded it.