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▪ I. pluvial, n.1 Eccl. Obs. exc. Hist.|ˈpluːvɪəl| Also pluviale. [ad. med.L. pluviāle (also pluviālis, Du Cange), prop. rain-cloak, orig. neut. of L. pluviālis pertaining to rain. So F. pluvial (12th c. in Godef.). Cf. It. piviale, pieviale, perhaps influenced in form by pieve rural deanery (plebs). (But Diez takes *plēbiāle, from plēbs, as the real source, and pluvial as due to popular etymology.)] A long cloak worn by ecclesiastics as a ceremonial vestment; = cope n.1 2 (where see note); also, a similar garment used by monarchs as a robe of state.
1669G. Fox Arraignm. Popery 44 They put upon the Pope a red Cope, called a Pluvial. 1690Lond. Gaz. No. 2533/2 The Deputies of Nuremburg placed the Mantle or Pluviale of Charlemagne on his Shoulders. 1725tr. Dupin's Eccl. Hist. 17th C. I. v. 63 The Priest had a Pluvial or Cope, besides the Habit with which he is cloath'd, when he celebrates the Mass. 1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 404 Over the whole is thrown the cope or pluviale (literally, rain-cloak) because first adopted, merely as a covering from the weather. 1886Athenæum 7 Aug. 180/3 The pluvial of St. Silvester seems to her to be English. ▪ II. pluvial, a. and n.2|ˈpluːvɪəl| [ad. L. pluviāl-is of or belonging to rain, f. pluvia rain. So F. pluvial.] A. adj. a. Of or pertaining to rain; rainy; characterized by much rain; spec. designating periods of relatively high average rainfall in low and intermediate latitudes during the geological past (esp. the Pleistocene) which alternated with interpluvial periods in a cycle which may be correlated with or related to the better-known cycle of glacial and interglacial periods in higher latitudes. Cf. interpluvial, intrapluvial adjs. and ns.
1656Blount Glossogr., Pluvial, of rain, like to rain, rainy, waterish. 1657Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 185 A Bath..of Sweet water, whether pluvial or fluvial. 1832C. Nicholson Ann. Kendal iv. (1861) 157 The butter-women were exposed to the pluvial elements. 1868A. Tylor in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. XXIV. 105 Many of the Quaternary deposits in all countries..are of such great dimensions and elevation that they must have been formed under physical conditions very different from our own. They indicate a Pluvial period, just as clearly as the northern drift indicates a Glacial period. 1869Phillips Vesuv. v. 145 Such uncommon pluvial descents may follow. 1927Peake & Fleure Apes & Men v. 75 He endeavoured to show that..in the valley of the Nile, there was evidence of four very wet periods, or pluvial periods. 1949W. F. Albright Archaeol. Palestine 50 The cold phases are called ‘glacial periods’ in northern latitudes and ‘pluvial periods’ in the latitude of Palestine, where there was no glaciation, but instead a greatly increased rainfall. 1954New Biol. XVII. 11 There is evidence of at least two great ‘Pluvial’ periods of heavy rainfall in the Pleistocene when these [East African] lakes reached their maximum size and depth. 1979Nature 1 Mar. 80/1 The student interested in the Pleistocene will find many discredited ideas (for example, glacial = pluvial). b. Geol. Caused by rain.
1859Page Geol. Terms s.v., We speak of the denuding or degrading effects of ‘pluvial agency’, just as we speak of ‘atmospheric’, ‘fluviatile’, or other similar agency. 1878Huxley Physiogr. ix. 131 The particular kind of denudation effected by means of rain is called pluvial denudation. B. n. A pluvial period.
1929Nature 6 July 9/2 A large mammalian fauna has been collected from the deposits of the various Pluvials. 1931L. S. B. Leakey Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony ii. 13 The prehistoric tribes..moved down to the Rift Valley areas during the pluvials. 1959Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. LXX. 345/2 African pluvials are of great importance for climatic history, for Pleistocene correlation, and for meteorologic theory. 1970Bray & Trump Dict. Archaeol. 184/1 Prolonged periods of high rainfall are called pluvials, and are marked by changes in lake levels and in flora and fauna. |