-iciansuffix

a compound suffix, in French -icien, consisting of -ian suffix (Middle English and French -ien), added to names of arts or sciences in Latin -ica, French -ique, English -ic suffix, -ics, to denote a person skilled in the art or science; e.g. arithmetic-ian, logic-ian, magic-ian, music-ian, physic-ian, rhetoric-ian; mathematic-ian, mechanic-ian, optic-ian, politic-ian, statistic-ian, tactic-ian; sometimes formed by analogy on names not ending in -ic (though there may be an adjective in -ic), as academ-ician, algebr-ician, geometr-ician, Hebr-ician: cf. also patrician n.¹, < Latin patrici-us. The termination goes back to 12th cent. in Old French (where it was merely a case of the usual suffix -ien as in astrolog-ien, astronom-ien): thus 12th cent. physicien, 13th cent. logicien, 14th cent. mathematicien, musicien. In English fisicien is known c1225, magicyen c 1380, musicien, rethoricien c 1425, logycien c 1475. Extended formations, with suffix -er, are musician-er (now colloquial and regional), and practition-er for practicianer (French practicien).