-ic

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English -ik, also -ic,^[2][3][4] partly borrowed from French -ique and partly borrowed from Latin -icus,^[5][3][2][6] which was itself partly native Latin, as in cīvicus, pūblicus and domesticus, and partly from Ancient Greek -ικός (-ikós), as in cōmicus from κωμικός (kōmikós) and poēticus from ποιητικός (poiētikós).^[5][7] Etymonline and Wiktionary take the Latin and Greek forms back to Proto-Indo-European *-(i)kos,^[3][1] and it is related to the native -y.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It was one of the commonest suffixes in Greek, with the sense after the manner of, of the nature of, or pertaining to; its use in Latin was much more restricted.^[5] Greek adjectives in -ικός (-ikós) could already be nouns: κριτικός (kritikós), a critic; μουσική (mousikḗ), the art of the Muses; and in the plural, names of matters such as οἰκονομικά (oikonomiká).^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Words in -ic reached post-classical Latin in great numbers, and passed from it to the modern languages.^[5] Since the 16th century English has also taken them directly from Greek or formed them on Greek elements.^[5] More recent words build on other bases, as with artistic, bardic and Byronic.^[5] Early names of arts were singular and often spelled in -ique or -ike, like musike and logike, and some of them survive in that form: arithmetic, logic, magic, music, rhetoric.^[5][7] From the 15th century -ics occurs in the names of treatises, later of their subjects, and since about 1600 it has been the accepted form for names of sciences and practices.^[5][7] Spellings in -ick were common in early modern English: Johnson supported them and Webster opposed them, and Webster's view prevailed.^[3] In chemistry the suffix marks a higher valence than the corresponding word in -ous.^[3][5][8] Words in -ic are regularly stressed on the syllable before the suffix; the exceptions, such as arsenic and lunatic, came chiefly from French.^[5]

Timeline

• Middle English – arsmetike, magike, musike, logike, from French.^[5]
• 15th century – etiques, the name of a treatise.^[5][7]
• second half of the 16th century – -ics for a subject: mathematics, economics.^[5]
• 1600 on – -ics as the accepted form for names of sciences.^[5]
• 1791 – benzoic, the first chemical use, according to Etymonline.^[3][5]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forming adjectives meaning of, relating to or resembling something: Slavic, oceanic.^[8][2][6]
2. Forming adjectives meaning consisting of or containing something: metallic.^[9][2]
3. Forming adjectives meaning affected by or having a condition: allergic.^[8][2]
4. (chemistry) Marking an element in the higher of two valence states: ferric, boric.^[8][9][5]
5. Forming nouns for a person of a stated kind, an agent or a thing: mechanic, cosmetic.^[2][7][5]
6. Forming nouns for an art or field of knowledge: logic.^[9][7][5]

Word family

• civic
• comic
• poetic
• public
• domestic

Related words

• -ical
• -ician
• -ics
• -y

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology