practic

practic

English

Etymology

From Old French, from Late Latin practicus (“active”), from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós, “of or pertaining to action, concerned with action or business, active, practical”), from πράσσω (prássō, “I do”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹæktɪk/

Noun

practic (plural practics)

1. A person concerned with action or practice, as opposed to one concerned with theory.

Adjective

practic (comparative more practic, superlative most practic)

1. (archaic) Practical.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):

     , II.i.4.3:

     They that intend the practic cure of melancholy, saith Duretus in his notes to Hollerius, set down nine peculiar scopes or ends […].

2. (obsolete) Cunning, crafty.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.xii:

     she vsed hath the practicke paine / Of this false footman [...].

Derived terms

• practical

Related terms

• practise

Further reading

• practic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• practic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.