Anthropologic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˌæn.θɹoʊ.poʊˈlɑd͡ʒ.ɪk/

Definitions

1. Related to the scientific study of humans, their origins, development, customs, and social relationships
2. Concerning the systematic examination of cultural practices, physical characteristics, and evolutionary patterns across human societies
3. Pertaining to the investigation of humanity's biological evolution, behavioral patterns, and societal structures through empirical research methods

Etymology: Anthropologic is a straightforward formation: it is the adjective "anthropology" with the suffix "-ic" added, and it means "of human study." The base word is the one doing the real work. "Anthropology" comes from Greek roots meaning "human" and "discourse" or "study," and the suffix "-ic" arrived in English through a long chain: it passed from Latin "-icus" into Old French as "-ique," then into Middle English as "-ik," and eventually settled into the modern "-ic" spelling. The suffix itself is very old. Its ancestry runs back through Proto-Italic to the Proto-Indo-European "-kos," a marker meaning something like "relating to" or "belonging to." That is why so many English adjectives end in "-ic": they all share this same ancient ending, which English borrowed wholesale from Latin and Greek over many centuries.

Synonyms: cultural, humanistic, sociocultural, ethnological, social