-ician

suffix forming nouns denoting persons skilled in or concerned with subjects having nouns (usu.) in -ic or -ics (magician; politician).
Etymology: from or after F -icien (as -IC, -IAN)

* * *

\\ˈishən\ noun suffix (-s)

Etymology: Middle English -icien, -ician, from Old French -icien, from Latin -ica (as in rhetorica rhetoric) + Old French -ien -ian — more at rhetoric

: a specialist or practitioner in a (specified) field

beautician

technician

* * *

a suffix forming personal nouns denoting occupations: beautician; mortician.

[extracted from musician, physician, etc., derived, with -IAN, from words ending in -IC]

* * *

suffix (forming nouns) denoting a person skilled in or concerned with a field or subject (often corresponding to a noun ending in -ic or -ics)

politician | statistician

Origin:

from French -icien

* * *

-ician

(ɪʃən)

a compound suffix, in F. -icien, consisting of -ian (ME. and F. -ien), added to names of arts or sciences in L. -ica, F. -ique, Eng. -ic, -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 adj. in -ic), as academ-ician, algebr-ician, geometr-ician, Hebr-ician: cf. also patrician, f. L. patrici-us.

The termination goes back to 12th c. in OF. (where it was merely a case of the usual suffix -ien as in astrolog-ien, astronom-ien): thus 12th c. physicien, 13th c. logicien, 14th c. mathematicien, musicien. In Eng. fisicien is known c 1225, magicyen c 1380, musicien, rethoricien c 1425, logycien c 1475. Extended formations, with suffix -er, are musician-er (now obs. or vulgar), and practition-er for practicianer (F. practicien).