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-ic
(formerly -ick, ik(e, -ique), suffix, primarily forming adjs., many of which are used as ns. The latter have also the form -ics: see 2.
1. In adjs., immediately representing F. -ique, ad. L. -ic-us, of Latin origin, as in cīvic-us, classic-us, public-us, domestic-us, aquātic-us, or ad. Gr. -ικ-ός, as in κωµικ-ός cōmic-us, γραµµατικ-ός grammatic-us, ποιητικ-ός poētic-us. This was in Gr. one of the commonest of suffixes, forming adjs., with the sense ‘after the manner of’, ‘of the nature of’, ‘pertaining to’, ‘of’. Its use in L. was much more restricted, and it ceased to be a living formative, except in the compound suffix -āticus (see -atic, -age), and in words formed from Greek, or on Greek types. These were very numerous in late and med.L., whence they passed into the modern langs.; since the 16th c. they have been taken directly from Gr., or formed upon Gr. elements, and in some recent (esp. scientific) terms on words from L. or other sources, as carbonic, oratoric, artistic, bardic, scaldic, felspathic, Icelandic, Byronic.
b. In Chemistry, the suffix -ic is specifically employed to form the names of oxygen acids and other compounds having a higher degree of oxidation than those whose names end in -ous; e.g. chloric acid HO3Cl, chlorous acid HO2Cl, sulphuric acid H2SO4, sulphurous acid H2SO3.
At the time when this nomenclature was introduced only two such compounds were provided for. In many cases other oxygen compounds have since been obtained, but the names in -ic and -ous have been retained in their original applications, and prefixes as per-, hyper-, hypo-, sesqui-, etc. prefixed to denominate the additional compounds.
1807Thomson Chem.. ii. 254 The French chemists..made some of the names of the combustible acids end in ic, as if they were saturated with oxygen; and others in ous, as if they were capable of combining with an additional dose. The fact is, that none of them are, strictly speaking, saturated with oxygen; for all of them are capable of combining with more. 1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 4 Acids formed by oxygen with another element, are distinguished by the termination ous, given to acids with a lesser quantity of oxygen, and ic to acids with a greater quantity.
2. Already in Gr., adjs. in -ικός were used absolutely as ns., e.g. in sing. masc., as στωικ-ός (man) of the porch, Stoic, κριτικ-ός (man) able to discern, critic, hence in L. Stōicus, criticus, etc.; also, in sing. fem., in names of arts (sc. τέχνη) or systems of thought, knowledge, or action (sc. θεωρία, ϕιλοσοϕία), e.g. ἡ µουσική the art of the Muses, music, ἡ ῥητορική the oratorical art, rhetoric, ἡ ἠθική theory of morals, ethics, ἡ ὀπτική science of vision, optics; and in neuter pl., as expressions for the affairs or matters pertaining to some department, and hence as names of treatises on these subjects, as τὰ οἰκονοµικά things pertaining to the management of a household, a treatise on this, economics. Sometimes both forms were in use with a distinction of sense; e.g. ἡ πολιτική the art of the statesman, political science, τὰ πολιτικά affairs of state, politics; this distinction tended however to become obliterated, as in ἡ τακτική, τὰ τακτικά tactics, ἡ ϕυσική, τὰ ϕυσικά physics. In pairs like ϕυσική, ϕυσικά both forms gave regularly a L. form in -ica, as physica, which might be taken as fem. sing. or neuter pl.; hence there was in med.L. considerable fluctuation in the grammatical treatment of these words. In the Romanic langs. (It., Sp. -ica, F. -ique), as also in Ger. (-ik), they were regularly treated as fem. sing.; though in French, from the 16th c., sometimes as plural (les mathématiques).
In English, such words of this class as were in use before 1500 had the singular form, and were usually written, after French, -ique, -ike, as arsmetike, magike, musike, logike (-ique), retorique, mathematique (-ike, -ik), mechanique, economique, ethyque (-ik); this form is retained in arithmetic, logic, magic, music, rhetoric (though logics has also been used). But, from the 15th c., forms in -ics (-iques) occur as names of treatises (repr. Gr. names in -ικά or their L. translations in -ica), e.g. etiques = τὰ ἠθικά; and in the second half of the 16th c. this form is found applied to the subject-matter of such treatises, in mathematics, economics, etc. From 1600 onward, this has been the accepted form with names of sciences, as acoustics, conics, dynamics, ethics, linguistics, metaphysics, optics, statics, or matters of practice, as æsthetics, athletics, economics, georgics, gymnastics, politics, tactics. The names of sciences, even though they have the form in -ics, are now construed as singular, as in ‘mathematics is the science of quantity; its students are mathematicians’; in recent times some writers, following German or French usage, have preferred to use a form in -ic, as in dialectic, dogmatic, ethic, metaphysic, static, etc. Names of practical matters as gymnastics, politics, tactics, usually remain plural, in construction as well as in form.
3. Besides the preceding, there are many ns. formed directly from adjectives in -ic taken absolutely, either after ancient models or on ancient analogies, as in names of medical agents, as alexipharmic, emetic, cosmetic, hidrotic (pl. emetics, etc.); in names of styles of poetry or metres, as epic, lyric, Anacreontics, iambics; and in words of various kinds, as domestic, rustic, catholic, classic, mechanic, lunatic.
Words in -ic from Gr. or L. have the stress regularly on the penult, e.g. meˈchanic, draˈmatic, enˈclitic, faˈnatic. The exceptions, as aˈrithmetic, ˈarsenic, ˈcatholic, ˈheretic, ˈrhetoric, ˈlunatic, are chiefly words taken directly from French, in which originally the final syllable had the main stress, and the antepenult a secondary stress (ˌrhetoˈrique), which afterwards became the primary in accordance with the regular treatment of French words (e.g. ˌvaniˈte, ˌaniˈmal), in English.
A few adjs. in -ic form advs. in -icly, as publicly, franticly, heroicly; but the adv. is usually in -ically, from the secondary adj. in -ical. Derivative abstract ns. are formed in -icity, as domesticity, atomicity, and agent nouns in -ician as arithmetician, musician, physician. |