Why do we say mechanic and not mechanist? eg. "Im a car mechanic" where does that ic come from?For starters, languages borrow more than just words (as we discovered when we discussed Spanish baseball terminology). Suffixes, prefixes and the like can also jump from one language to another and this is precisely what happened with -ic.
The suffix -ic originates with Greek ending that turns any noun into an adjective. It was rarely used with Classical Latin words of Greek origin, but appeared more frequently in the Latin of medieval times (the one with the bubonic plague, not dinner theater). I suspect the frequent use of -ic in the Latin of this period may have something to do with the large number of Greek words used by monks and clerics and the like, but I can't confirm this yet.
In any case, French inherited -ic, but spelled it "-ique." Thus "mechanique" meant related to machines in the same way "cinématographique" or "volcanique" mean related to cinematography or volcanoes.
It underwent a few spelling changes in English ("-ique", "-ick" and "-ike" are all found) before coming full circle back to "-ic." Since English words aren't explicitly marked as a part of speech, they tend to switch catagories easily. Thus "mechanic" became "a mechanic" as easily as adding an "a" in front of it.
So there you have it, Bro-chan. As far as why we say "mechanic" and not "mechanist," I would suggest that because "mechanic" was first an adjective, it wasn't eligible to have "-ist" added to it. Unlike, "machine" which as a noun gave rise to "machinist." For more on "-ist" check out our former Word of the Moment:"Titlist."
I hope you have enjoyed Schendo's Reader Mailbag Spectacular (name still in Beta). In order to make this a regular feature I need your help. Do you have a question about language, etymology or historical linguistics? Send it to Schendo via eMail, Facebook or Twitter (or just find me in a bar).
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