-ics

The morphological (word-building) suffix -ics is mostly used used nowadays for 'the subject which deals with matters of ...'. In academic life, you will find, for example, physics (the subject that deals with aspects of the natural world [φύσις, 'physis', was one Greek word for 'nature'], particularly those related to matter, movement and energy); politics, 'the [study of] matters of public policy, from Greek πόλις‚, 'polis', = 'city'; economics, [the study of] matters related to [originally household] management and finance, from the (Greek οἰκονομία, 'household management', itself from οἴκος‚ 'a house'; and ethics, the [study of] morals, from the Greek ἡθικος 'moral', 'showing moral character', from ἦθος character, (in plural) 'manners' , 'manners'. Many modern sciences and technologies have names formed in the same way, like acoustics, acrobatics, aeronautics, avionics, ballistics, mechanics, optics, statics and statistics.

The grammatical form of words made using -ics looks like a plural, but is usually used as a singular. Economics is the "dismal science", according to Thomas Carlyle in 1850. One oddity is the subject of mathematics, abbreviated to Maths in British English, but singularly Math in American English. (In both dialects, the Science, rather than the subject, is known as Mathematics; and all forms tend to be treated as singular: the British schoolboy may "hate maths" no more, or less, than his American contemporary may "hate Math", but both might say " it is my favourite lesson."

Etymological note: The root of the suffix -ics is a Greek adjectival suffix, -ικος‚ '-ikos', in its base form. The neuter plural of such adjectives could be used absolutely, as a noun meaning 'the things ['thing' (neuter) + '-s' (plural)] to do with ...' Aristotle famously wrote treatises with names like Analytics (two books on on Logic); Physics (on Natural Science) and Meteorologics; at least two volumes of Ethics, one of Politics and one of Economics; a Poetics, largely about tragedy; and the Metaphysics, the book which was said to have been written 'after' (Greek μετὰ) the Physics, and consequently to be found 'after [= further away than] it on the library shelves. There is also the coincidence that it can be interpreted as meaning that the subject-matter of the Metaphysics is beyond that of the Physics - that is, that metaphysics transcends natural science.