-eticsuffix

Etymology: < ancient Greek -ετικός or -ητικός < a verbal adjective in -ετός (as heretic adj.) or -ητός (as arithmetic adj.), or an agent noun in -έτης (as phyletic adj.) or -ητής (as prophetic adj.) + -ικός -ic suffix; sometimes via classical Latin -eticus or -ēticus. This type gives rise to analogical formations, deriving ultimately from Greek verbs (or verbal derivatives as described above), but where an adjective in -ετικός or -ητικός is not recorded, e.g. antembletic adj. Many English formations correspond to nouns in -esis (or -esy ; compare phoretic adj.) on the model of cases where a Greek adjective in -ητικός or -ετικός corresponds to a Greek noun in -ησις or -εσις (e.g. aesthetic adj., diaeretic adj., respectively); such formations include synizetic adj. at synizesis n. Derivatives.Many formations are first (and in some cases only) attested in Urquhart, as antipophoretic adj., antimetathetic adj., aposiopetic adj., isocoletic adj. at isocolic adj., kirkomanetic adj., palilogetic adj., paromologetic adj., polypragmonetic adj.; compare also the loans ethopoetic adj. and zetetic adj. in the same author. Also in the mid 17th cent. several loans < Greek are first attested in T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (1656). Many English words ending in -etic show -ic suffix suffixed to stems ending in -t- , as e.g. alphabetic adj., pamphletic adj.; compare also loans < Latin words in -eticus where the -t- belongs to the stem of the Latin noun from which the adjective is derived, as magnetic adj. This pattern is also found in the names of many acids, e.g. acetic acid n., abietic acid n. at abietic adj., etc.