Conics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A branch of mathematics that deals with the study of curves, including ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, defined by their geometric properties
2. A field of mathematics focused on the analysis of conic sections formed by the intersection of a plane and a double-napped cone; it explores their equations and characteristics
3. An area in mathematics that examines the shapes and properties of conic sections such as parabolas, ellipses, and hyperbolas, derived from a cone's geometry

Etymology: "Conics" is the plural-looking name of a branch of mathematics, and its history is simply a compound: the noun "cone" with the suffix "-ics," the same ending that gives us "physics," "statistics," and "mathematics" as names of fields of study. The suffix comes from the Greek plural "-ika," used for arts and sciences, so the name reads as "the study of cones." The "cone" half traces back through Latin "conus" to Greek "kōnos," originally a pine cone or a peaked shape, which is why the geometric solid and the pine-shaped fruit share one ancestor. Mathematicians took the word for the three-dimensional figure and its slices, and the field studying those slices was named by attaching the same -ics ending used for other disciplines.