-fic

suffix (usu. as -ific) forming adjectives meaning 'producing', 'making' (prolific; pacific).
Derivatives:
-fically suffix forming adverbs.
Etymology: from or after F -fique or L -ficus f. facere do, make

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\\fik, fēk\ adjective suffix

Etymology: Middle French & Latin; Middle French -fique, from Latin -ficus, from facere make, do — more at do

: making : causing : bringing about

acidific

prolific

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a combining form meaning "making," "producing," "causing," appearing in adjectives borrowed from Latin: frigorific; honorific; pacific; prolific.

[ < L -ficus making, producing, equiv. to -fic- (comb. form of facere to make) + -us adj. suffix; in some words r. -fique < MF < L -ficus]

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-fic /-fik/

combining form

Denoting causing, making or producing, as in horrific

ORIGIN: L -ficus, from facere to make

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-fic,

suffix forming nouns from nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. making; causing: »

Pacific = making peace. Terrific = causing terror.

╂[< Latin -ficus < -ficere, variant in compounds of facere do, make]

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(usu. as -ific) suffix (forming adjectives) producing; making

prolific | soporific

Origin:

from French -fique or Latin -ficus from facere ‘do, make’

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-fic, suffix

repr. L. -ficus ‘-making, -doing’ (f. weakened root of facĕre to make, do), forming adjs. (1) from ns., with the sense ‘making, causing, producing’, as in honōrificus, pācificus, or ‘performing’, as sacrificus; (2) from adjs., with the sense ‘performing actions of a certain kind’, as magnificus, also (in late and med.L.) with the sense ‘bringing into a specified state’, as beātificus; (3) from vbs., with the sense ‘causing to’, as horrificus, terrificus; (4) from advbs., only in beneficus, maleficus, adjs. of agency to the phrases bene, male facere to do good, do ill (to). Except in the two last-mentioned words, and in venēficus (contr. for *venēnificus), the suffix -ficus is always preceded by -i-, which is either the stem-vowel or a substitute for it, or a connecting-vowel appended to a consonant-stem. Most of the L. adjs. in -(i)ficus appear in Fr., the termination being adapted as -(i)fique; also in It., Sp., Pg., the form being -fico. In Eng. the suffix prob. first occurred in adoptions from Fr., like magnific, and was often spelt -(i)fique down to the 17th c. In mediæval and mod.L. new formations with -(i)ficus were very common, and many of them have passed, in adapted forms, into the Rom. langs. and Eng., as prolific, scientific. In scientific nomenclature new words are still sometimes formed by the addition of the representative of -(i)ficus to L. stems; such words, if accepted at all, are usually of international currency, and it is often uncertain in which lang. they were first used; Eng. examples are acidific, chylific, felicific, morbific.

Several L. adjs. in -ficus form their comparatives and superlatives, and their nouns of quality, from a stem in -ficent-. In Eng. (but not in Romanic) the adapted forms of these words end in -ficent, as beneficent, magnificent, maleficent, munificent.