Tectiform

Quick meaning: Tectiform is an adjective meaning (biology, anthropology) Roof-shaped; sloping downwards on two sides from a raised central ridge.

Meaning

(biology, anthropology) Roof-shaped; sloping downwards on two sides from a raised central ridge.

More Meanings

1. (anthropology) A type of cave painting or engraving, having in its simplest form the shape of an upward-pointing wedge or arrow, thought to represent the roof of a tent or rudimentary building.

Example Sentences

Because of their composition and the coexistence in them of meanders and tectiforms they differ from chimpanzee drawings, which are in many other ways a comparable phenomenon.

1924, American Anthropologist, Volume 26, New Series, page 48, The tectiforms reproduce in a remarkable manner the simple shelters, tents, and huts in use today among primitive and nomadic races in various parts of the world.

Inclusion of both ideomorphs and tectiforms as proto-art, and adaptation of the images to the natural textures of the rock surfaces as proto-cinema, suggests that the need to animate and annotate go beyond mere literal representation.

Word Forms

• tectiforms

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include terraciform, mesetiform, turriform, circumvallate, turrical, flat-topped.

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