# physic

Pronunciation: say "FIZ-ik" /ˈfɪz.ɪk/

## Verb

3. To administer medicine to a person or animal, especially a purgative.
   - Simple: To give someone medicine, especially something to clean out the bowels.
   - _The farrier physicked the ailing mare twice a day._
   - _Parents would physic their children at the change of seasons._
4. To cure or heal someone of illness or affliction.
   - Simple: To make a sick or hurt person well again.
   - _They believed time and care could physic even a deep grief._
   - _The waters were said to physic those who bathed in them._

## Noun

1. A medicine or drug, especially a cathartic or purgative that empties the bowels. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A medicine given to make someone well, often one that empties the bowels.
   - _The apothecary mixed a bitter physic for the feverish child._
   - _Travelers carried physics against the gripes and agues of the road._
2. The art or profession of healing disease; the practice of medicine. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The work and skill of treating sick people, medicine as a profession.
   - _She devoted her life to physic, treating the poor without charge._
   - _Physic and surgery were once taught as separate disciplines._
5. Natural philosophy; the study of the natural world, an older name for physics. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: The study of nature and how the physical world works, an old name for physics.
   - _Newton's work transformed physic into a precise mathematical science._
   - _In the old curriculum, physic covered everything from falling bodies to the tides._
6. A physician; one who practices the healing art. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A person whose job is to treat illness, a doctor.

## Adjective

7. Relating to or concerned with material things that actually exist; physical. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Having to do with real things that you can see and touch. It means the same as physical.

## Origin

**Meaning 7** — From Middle English phisik, from Latin physicus, from Ancient Greek phŭsĭkós ('natural; physical'), from phúsis ('nature, origin, form, kind'), from phŭ́ō ('grow'), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- ('to appear, become, rise up').
**Meanings 1–6** — From Middle English fysike (noun) and phisiken (verb, from the noun), from Old French fisike ('natural science, art of healing'), from Latin physica ('study of nature'), from Ancient Greek phusikḗ, the feminine of phŭsĭkós ('natural; physical').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/physic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).