titanic
tye-TAN-ik · adjective
FrenchEnglish
Origin
Titanic comes from titanium plus the suffix -ic, meaning 'of or pertaining to.' In its original sense, 'of or relating to titanium,' it was modeled after the French titanique.
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Journey
The word started as a plain chemical descriptor for titanium, before taking on the larger-than-life sense familiar today (see Titanic).
Related words
It shares its root with titanium itself, the metal that gave the word its start.