-icsuffix

2. Already in Greek, adjectives in -ικός were used absolutely as nouns, e.g. in singular masculine, as Στωικ-ός (man) of the porch, Stoic, κριτικ-ός (man) able to discern, critic, hence in Latin Stōicus, criticus, etc.; also, in singular feminine, 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 plural, 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 Latin form in -ica, as physica, which might be taken as feminine singular or neuter plural; hence there was in medieval Latin considerable fluctuation in the grammatical treatment of these words. In the Romanic languages (Italian, Spanish -ica, French -ique), as also in German (-ik), they were regularly treated as feminine singular; though in French, from the 16th cent., 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 cent., forms in -ics (-iques) occur as names of treatises (representing Greek names in -ικά or their Latin translations in -ica), e.g. etiques = τὰ ἠθικά; and in the second half of the 16th cent. 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 nouns 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 (plural 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 Greek or Latin 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 adjectives in -ic form adverbs in -icly, as publicly, franticly, heroicly; but the adverb is usually in -ically suffix, from the secondary adjective in -ical suffix. Derivative abstract nouns are formed in -icity suffix, as domesticity, atomicity, and agent nouns in -ician suffix as arithmetician, musician, physician.