technic, a. and n.
(ˈtɛknɪk)
[ad. L. technic-us (Quint.), a. Gr. τεχνικ-ός of or pertaining to art, f. τέχνη art, craft: see -ic. So F. technique (1721 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to art, or to an art: = technical. Now rare.
| 1612 Sturtevant Metallica iii. 49 Define the Technick part. 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1729) II. vi. 347 All technick Words..and Terms of Art, belong to the respective Artists and Dealers, that primarily and literally make use of them in their Business. 1760 Phil. Trans. LI. 756 Terms..used in the strict technic sense. 1845 R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. (ed. 2) viii. 187 The inhabitant of a manufacturing town has frequent proof of the intellectual difference between the rural, and the technic labourer. 1905 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 425 Our practical problem is now a technic and constructive one. |
2. Skilfully made or constructed. [After Gr. τεχνικός (Hippocrates).] rare—1.
| 1877 Blackie Wise Men 245 What a wealth of sounds Wends through the technic chambers of the ear. |
B. n.
1. A technical term, expression, point, or detail; a technicality. Chiefly U.S. rare.
| 1826 T. Flint Recoll. Valley Mississippi 86 A process, which, in the technics of the [Mississippi] boatmen is called bush-whacking. 1872 T. L. Cuyler Heart Th. 8 A right estimate of sin..is a vital point in the soul's salvation: it is more than a technic of theology. 1875 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Greatness Wks. (Bohn) III. 272, I find it easy to translate all his [Napoleon's] technics into all of mine. |
2. a. Technical details or methods collectively; the technical department of a subject; esp. the formal or mechanical part of an art (now chiefly U.S.; more commonly technique, q.v.).
| [1798 Willich Adelung's Elem. Crit. Philos. 181 Technic 1, in a proper sense, means art, causality according to ideas, purposes.] 1855 Lewes Goethe I. i. v. 49 His impatient susceptibility which..prevented his ever thoroughly mastering the technic of any one subject. 1867 M. Arnold Celtic Lit. 142 Icelandic poetry..shows a powerful and developed technic. 1887 Lowell Old Eng. Dram. (1892) 56 In the technic of this art, perfection can be reached only by long training. 1908 Arch. Internal Med. II. 107 Cunningham's technic was crude. 1922 [see encephalography s.v. encephalo-]. 1931 [see plasmodesma]. 1943 H. L. Mencken Heathen Days vii. 93 The Fourth..went even worse than the Eroica, though it actually makes much less demand on technic. 1954 [see immunohæmatology s.v. immuno-]. |
b. Collective pl. technics in same sense: also construed as a singular.
| 1850 J. Leitch tr. C. O. Müller's Anc. Art §257 Antique vases..also, very grandly and beautifully designed, of the more perfect style of technics. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 256 Conformity to the accepted rules that constitute the technics of poetry. 1909 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 204 Literary technics, especially that of the novel, depends on reproducing experiments from life. |
3. The science or study of art or arts, esp. of the mechanical or industrial arts: = technology 1. Usually in pl. technics.
| 1864 in Webster. 1865 S. H. Hodgson Time & Space ii. ix. §68 Technic and Teleologic are the two branches of practical knowledge..and are both together, as Ethic, opposed to Theoretic. 1874 R. Tyrwhitt Sketch. Club 87 You must study history, literature, and technics. |