Etymology: < ancient Greek -ωτικός < nouns in -ώτης (see -ote suffix), or adjectives in -ωτός (from verbs in -όω ) + -ικός -ic suffix. Compare French -otique, German -otisch.The suffix is first attested in loanwords from Greek adjectives in -ωτικός , the earliest (via Middle French and Latin) being narcotic n. (Middle English); narcotic adj. (also via Middle French) is the first of numerous adjectives (especially from 17th cent.) with medical or pharmaceutical reference, e.g. sclerotic adj.1 (16th cent.), hypnotic adj. and n., eccoprotic adj. and n., porotic adj.1 (17th cent.), hydrotic adj. (18th cent.), amblotic adj., (19th cent.). A number of loanwords relating to other spheres of activity are first attested in this period, e.g. erotic adj., exotic adj., patriotic adj. (17th cent.), demotic n. and adj. (19th cent.). Formations in English (chiefly scientific) are found from the 17th cent. The earliest examples are neurotic n. and neurotic adj., formed on the model of the pharmaceutical terms mentioned above (compare narcotic n.). An important 18th-cent. example is chaotic adj. A small number are found in the 19th and 20th centuries, e.g. bathotic adj., mitotic adj., oncotic adj. In ancient Greek, adjectives in -ωτικός and nouns of action in -ωσις were formed on the same verbs; hence adjectives in -otic were associated from early modern English onwards with nouns in -osis suffix (e.g. pairs such as sclerotic adj.1 and sclerosis n., narcotic adj. and narcosis n.); this led to the establishment of a very productive pattern for deriving new adjectives from nouns of condition in -osis , e.g. anaplerotic adj., chlorotic adj. (18th cent.), necrotic adj., melanotic adj. (19th cent.), nephrotic adj. (20th cent.).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
suffix