Word origin
[1700–10; ‹ LL
proceleusmaticus ‹ Gk
prokeleusmatikós lit., calling for incitement, equiv. to
pro- pro-2 +
keleusmat- (s. of
kéleusma summons, deriv. of
keleúein to rouse to action) +
-ikos -ic]This word is first recorded in the period 1700–10. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: camera, cirrus, envelope, hump, sliding scale-ic is a suffix forming adjectives from other parts of speech, occurring originally inGreek and Latin loanwords (metallic; poetic; archaic; public) and, on this model, used as an adjective-forming suffix with the particular senses“having some characteristics of” (opposed to the simple attributive use of the basenoun) (balletic; sophomoric); “in the style of” (Byronic; Miltonic); “pertaining to a family of peoples or languages” (Finnic; Semitic; Turkic)