ruina montium

noun

A mining technique in Ancient Rome, similar in principle to Pascal's barrel, where miners would excavate narrow cavities in a mountain and fill them with water to cause pressures high enough to fragment the rock.

OriginLatin ruīna montium →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounruina montium (uncountable)
  1. historicaluncountableA mining technique in Ancient Rome, similar in principle to Pascal's barrel, where miners would excavate narrow cavities in a mountain and fill them with water to cause pressures high enough to fragment the rock.

Origin

  1. Latinruīna montium“collapse of mountains”
  2. Englishruina montium

Borrowed from Latin ruīna montium (“collapse of mountains”).

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

ruina montium. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ruina%20montium

MLA

“ruina montium.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ruina%20montium. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ruina montium,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ruina%20montium.

Source: ruina montium on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.