botanic

Etymology

It is borrowed from French botanique, recorded in Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, and its source borrowed from Late Latin botanicus (“of herbs”),^[2][3][4][5] recorded from the 6th century,^[2] from Ancient Greek βοτανικός (botanikós, “of herbs”),^[2][3] from βοτάνη (botánē, “plant, grass, pasture, fodder”) and the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[2][3][4] Etymonline notes that the Greek word seems to have had more to do with pasture than with plants, as related Greek words for pastures, a herdsman and a grazing beast show.^[3] The adjective botanical is recorded earlier, and post-classical Latin botanicus was used as a noun for a botanist in a British source of 1641.^[2] Hoad notes that botany was formed later in the 17th century, on the model of astronomic and astronomy.^[4] Spanish botánico, Portuguese botânico and Italian botanico are recorded from the late 17th and early 18th centuries.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of or relating to botany or plants: 1647, in William Petty's Advice to Hartlib.^[2] The 1989 edition of the OED had 1656,^[6] and Etymonline dates it to the 1650s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1655 to 1715 botanic was also a noun for a botanist.^[2][5] From 1703 the adjective could describe herbal or botanical medicine, and in the 19th and early 20th centuries it named a student or practitioner of such medicine; the noun in this sense, from 1835, is now chiefly historical.^[2] The plural botanics, the science of plants, on the model of physics and mathematics, is recorded from 1698.^[6] The longer botanical has largely taken over the general sense, and botanic now survives mostly in the names of institutions such as botanic gardens.^[6][5]

Timeline

• 1647 – relating to botany or plants.^[2]
• 1655 – noun, a botanist (obsolete by 1715).^[2][5]
• 1698 – botanics, the science of plants.^[6]
• 1703 – relating to herbal or botanical medicine.^[2]
• 1835 – noun, a practitioner of botanical medicine.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to botany or plants; botanical, now chiefly in names such as botanic garden: the city's botanic garden.^[2][5][1]
2. Relating to herbal or botanical medicine.^[2]

Noun

1. (chiefly historical) A student or practitioner of botanical medicine.^[2]
2. (obsolete, 1655–1715) A botanist.^[2][5]

Related words

• botanical
• botany
• botanist

Usage notes

Grammarphobia notes that botanic and botanical mean the same thing and are both correct: some large public gardens use one and some the other, as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx do.^[7] The Shorter Oxford calls botanic archaic except in the names of institutions.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Isn’t it botanic?", 20 April 2009