planetismaladj.n.

1907 Times 3 Aug. 11/1 The theory of the gaseous nebula had been probably of more hindrance than help to geologists; its successors, the meteoritic hypothesis of Lockyer and the planetismal theory of Chamberlin, were of far more practical use to them.

1910 Westm. Gaz. 16 Apr. 12/3 He accepts what is known as the ‘planetismal hypothesis’, which is, in his opinion, the most positive advance in natural science which has been made for a very long time.

1938 Nature 5 Nov. 843 The planetismal hypothesis is the parent of the more recent tidal theories.

1975 Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geographers 65 73/2 There were Chamberlin and Salisbury with their planetismal hypothesis, Wegener and his drifting continents, Daly with his eustatic movements of sea-level [etc.].

1907 Times 3 Aug. 11/1 Some [of the swarms of meteorites] travelled around the sun in nearly circular orbits, like planets. They might be regarded as infinitesimal planets, and so Chamberlin called them planetismals.

1970 Sci. Jrnl. May 32/1 This theory has it that the Moon formed out of the coagulation of a ‘sediment-ring’ of planetismals which originally circled the Earth.

1989 Nature 11 May 103/3 Inductive heating of small planetismals may have a strong radial dependence.

2001 Press Enterprise (Riverside, Ca.) (Nexis) 4 Aug. b1 Most scientists seem to agree that the meteorite was once part of the core of a large asteroid, or planetismal.