Etymologically
Log in

medic

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word medic

Pronunciation

medic1 the plant

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1440 translation of Palladius
Borrowed from
Latin medica via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek Μῆδος

Etymology

The word for the plant is inherited from Middle English medike, also medice and medica,[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin mēdica,[5][3][6][7] from Ancient Greek Μηδική (Mēdikḗ), short for Μηδική πόα (Mēdikḕ póa, “Median grass”),[5][6][4][8] so called because the plant was brought from Media.[5][6] The Greek word is the feminine of Μηδικός (Mēdikós, “Median”),[5][3][6] from Μηδία (Mēdía, “Media”),[5][3] or, in Klein and the American Heritage Dictionary, from Μῆδος (Mêdos), a Mede.[6][9] The OED enters it under the spelling medick, and compares Italian medica and Middle French medique.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A kind of clover: about 1440, in a Middle English translation of Palladius, At Auerel medike is forto sowe.[2][5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged says the 15th century,[3] and Dictionary.com 1400–50.[4]

Semantic evolution

Before the plant is recorded, Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus (before 1398) mentions a tree called medica that grew in Media,[2] and the OED notes a slightly earlier noun medica next to its medick.[5] In English the word never strayed from botany: Johnson (1755) defined it as "a plant", with a description from Miller of its butterfly-shaped flower and ram's-horn pod.[10] It is now the name of the genus Medicago, and Collins gives medic as the usual American spelling of medick.[11][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1440 – a kind of clover.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Any plant of the genus Medicago, small leguminous plants resembling clover, including lucerne and black medick; also spelled medick.[3][11][12]

medic2 physician, military medic

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1625 Stradling, Divine Poemes
Borrowed from
Latin medicus
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *med-
Etymology tree of medic2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin medeor
Latin medicus
English medic
Italian medico
From the same root · medic2
Latin meditor ← medeor
Latin remedium ← medeor
Latin medicīnus ← medicus

Etymology

The word for the physician is borrowed from Latin medicus (“physician, surgeon; healing”),[5][3][13][14][8] from medeor (“to heal”),[5][14][8] with the suffix -icus,[5][3] from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to take appropriate measures”),[14] the base also of mete and meditate.[5] The Shorter Oxford adds that the noun may have been influenced by Old French medique (“physician”) and that it is partly an abbreviation of medical,[12] while Collins takes it from medical alone.[11] Compare Italian medico, Spanish médico and Portuguese médico.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A physician: 1625, in John Stradling's Divine Poemes.[5][3] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word later, to 1659 and the 1650s, for a physician or a medical student.[13][14]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the word began as a literary one and is now colloquial.[5] It covered physicians and students of medicine,[5][13][12] and in 1700, in a poem by Pomfret, it was also an adjective in poetic use, "medical", now rare.[5][12][3] The modern sense of a member of a military medical corps is recorded from 1925, in reference to the British Royal Army Medical Corps,[13][14] and the OED extends it to paramedical workers, military or civilian.[5]

Timeline

  • 1625 – a physician or medical practitioner.[5][3]
  • 1659 – a medical student.[13][14]
  • 1700 – adjective, medical, chiefly in poetry.[5]
  • 1925 – a serviceman in a military medical corps.[13][14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A physician or other person doing medical work; informally, a doctor or medical student: The medics on the night shift looked exhausted.[11][3][5]
  2. A member of a military medical corps or a paramedic: An army medic dressed his wound.[3][11][5]

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Medical.[3][5][12]

Usage notes

A different adjective Medic, pronounced /ˈmiːdɪk/, means "of Media, Median"; it is recorded from 1869 and comes from Latin Mēdicus.[5][12] In Bedfordshire, Kent and Cornwall dialect, medick was also a word for an emetic or for medicine.[15]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c 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 t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Medic.” Etymologically, 6 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/medic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·