-ical

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English -ical, also -icalle,^[2][3] partly formed from English -ic + -al and partly borrowed from Late Latin -icālis,^{[4][5][6][7][3]} itself from -icus and -ālis,^[5][6] also through Old French -ical.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late Latin had a limited number of such adjectives, such as clēricālis and grammaticālis, which Medieval Latin added to.^[7][3] In Middle English the MED finds it in words from Latin or Old French, such as canonical and musical, and in derivatives such as gramaticalli.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Although French has few adjectives in -ical, English formed them in abundance, often directly from nouns in -ic, or from Latin adjectives in -icus or French ones in -ique.^[7][8] These are very often recorded earlier than the matching form in -ic.^[7][5][8] Etymonline suggests that -ical was probably needed because forms in -ic often took on noun senses, as with physic.^[5] Pairs sometimes split in sense, as with economic and economical, historic and historical, or optic and optical.^[7][5][3] Merriam-Webster finds the -ical form usually has the wider or more transferred range of meaning.^[3] Elsewhere one form is just more usual, as -ic in linguistic and -ical in farcical.^[7]

Timeline

• 1447 – musical.^[4]
• 1475 – historical and comical.^[4]
• 1487 – economical.^[4]

Meanings

Suffix

1. Forming adjectives with roughly the sense of -ic: fanatical, grammatical.^[6][9][3]
2. Forming adjectives with a specialized or wider sense than the form in -ic: economical.^[6][3][7]
3. Forming adjectives from nouns in -ic or -ics: musical, statistical.^[6][4]

Word family

• historical
• logical
• medical
• political
• practical
• typical

Related words

• -ic
• -etic
• -al
• -ics

Usage notes

Derived nouns end in -icality and adverbs in -ically.^[7] That adverb also serves adjectives in -ic, as in drastically.^[7] Words with the suffix are normally stressed on the syllable before -ic-, as in musical.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press