See Also:

ic (iou)



-ic suffix. Also -ick, -ique.
[Repr. French -ique, its source Latin -icus, & its source Greek -ikos.]
In adjectives from French, Latin (esp. late Latin), or Greek, as civic, classic, historic, or formed directly in English, as artistic, Icelandic, with the general sense 'of or pertaining to'.
b. Forming part of compound suffixes, as -ATIC, -ETIC, -FIC, -OLOGIC.
c. Chemistry. In adjectives denoting a higher valence or degree of oxidation than those ending in -ous, as ferric, sulphuric.
In Greek, adjectives in -ikos were used absol. as nouns, which in medieval Latin gave words in -ica which could be taken as fem. sing. or as neut. pl. In English before 16 words of this class had the sing. form, and in some, as logic, magic, rhetoric, the sing. has been retained; others have -ic after French or German, as dialectic. More often such words now end in -ICS.
In nouns that are English adjectives used absol., as cosmetic, emetic; epic, lyric; domestic, mechanic, rustic.