-atic

suffix forming adjectives and nouns (aquatic; fanatic; idiomatic).
Etymology: F -atique or L - aticus, often ult. f. Gk -atikos

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suffix forming adjectives and nouns such as aquatic, idiomatic

Origin:

from French -atique or Latin -aticus, often based on Greek -atikos

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-atic, suffix

forming adjs., (= Fr. -atique) ad. L. -āticus, a particular case of the suffix -ic-us, ‘of, of the kind of’ (see -ic), appended to pa. ppl. stems of verbs; as in errā-re to wander, errāt-um, errātic-us of wandering nature, volātic-us of flying kind, vēnātic-us of hunting kind; also used with ns., e.g. aqua water, aquāt-us watered, watery, aquātic-us of watery kind, Asiātic-us, fānātic-us (fānum temple), silvātic-us (silva wood), umbrātic-us (umbra shade). Thence also neuter ns. as viāticum ‘what belongs to the way (via).’ In late L. and Romanic, the subst. use received great extension: it survives phonetically in the Fr. and Eng. -age, in umbrage, vantage, breakage. The adjectives in -atic, as aquatic, Asiatic, fanatic, lunatic, lymphatic, are all of modern introduction; they are to be distinguished from words in which the suffix is -ic only, as dramat-ic, hepat-ic, muriat-ic, pirat-ic, pneumat-ic, prelat-ic.