subsidence, subsidency

[Latin sub sidentia, from subsidens, pr. par. of subsido =to subside (q. v.).] I. Ordinary Language: 1. The act, proce , or state of subsiding, sinking, or falling to the bottom, as the lees of liquors. "The subsidency of this dreggish part of the world, the earth."-More: Antidote against Atheism . (App.) pine, pit, sire, sir, marine; gō, pot, subsidiarily 2. The act of sinking or settling down; a sinking or settling into the ground. "I measured the subsidence beneath its former eleva tion."-Boyle: Works, iii. 215. 3. The act of calming down; the state of becoming calm or quiet. "By the subdual or subsidence of the more violent pa ions."-War burton: Sermons, vol. x., ser. 32. II. Geol .: The sinking of the land, or of a sea, lake, or river-bed, the result in very many cases of earthquake action. In the Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, a new quay disappeared, with all the people who had taken refuge upon it, the depth of water where it sunk being a hundred feet. On June 16, 1819, a violent earthquake occurred at Cutch, in the delta of the Indus, and, among other effects of the convulsion, the estuary at the fort of Luckput, previously a foot deep at low water, was increased to eighteen feet, the adjacent village of Sindree being submerged to the housetops. Other earthquakes have produced similar effects. Subsidence is in progre at present over wide areas in the Pacific. [ATOLL.] It may take place in elevated inland regions, and the inhabitants not be aware that a change of level has occurred. Lyell (Prin. Geol ., ch. xi., xxxiii.) suggested that subsidence might arise from the melting of porous rocks, which, when fluid and subjected to great pre ure, occupied le room than before; or which, by pa ing from a pasty to a crystalline condition, might suffer contraction or from the subtraction of lava outwards; or from the shrinking of solid and stony ma es during refrigeration. Prof. Seeley considers that depre ion is inseparable from elevation just as every synclinal fold is a portion of an anticlinal. Hence, beyond the geographical limit of upheaval, a coast is found to be subsiding, and the regions where this condition is seen are nece arily adjacent to those which are being raised. sub-sid-I-ar-i-ly, adv. [Eng. subsidiary; -ly.] In a subsidiary manner or degree. sub-sid-I-ar-ý, a . & s . [Latin subsidiarius = belonging to a reserve; subsidium = a reserve, aid; Fr. subsidiaire .] [SUBSIDY.] A. As adjective : 3911 *sub-sig-nā-tion, s . [Lat. subsignatio , from sub sign at us , pa. par. of subsigno =to subsign (q.v.).] The act of subscribing or writing the name under anything for attestation. "This is as good as a sub sign at i on of your hand-writing, that you wish her well, and are enamoured of her."Shelton: Don Quixote , vol. iv.