entry
characteristic
/ˌkærəktəˈrɪstɪk/A distinguishing feature or quality of something
From Greek, via Latin, Old French, and Middle English character (An engraved mark).
Word Ancestry
Picture an ancient Greek artisan pressing a sharp tool into wax or wood: that physical engraving was a χαρακτήρ, a mark that stayed put. Greeks then made the leap from surface to soul, using the same word for the imprint believed to define a person’s nature—a metaphor still hiding inside our modern “character.” The word traveled through Latin and Old French into English, where “character” first meant marks, letters, and even magical symbols before becoming a person’s moral profile or a figure in a novel. By the 1660s, characteristic had become the neat adjective-and-noun package for anything that marks something out from its neighbors. Even the suffix -istic carries a tiny label-maker’s message: “having to do with.”
The Story
Picture an ancient Greek artisan pressing a sharp tool into wax or wood: that physical engraving was a χαρακτήρ, a mark that stayed put. Greeks then made the leap from surface to soul, using the same word for the imprint believed to define a person’s nature—a metaphor still hiding inside our modern “character.” The word traveled through Latin and Old French into English, where “character” first meant marks, letters, and even magical symbols before becoming a person’s moral profile or a figure in a novel. By the 1660s, characteristic had become the neat adjective-and-noun package for anything that marks something out from its neighbors. Even the suffix -istic carries a tiny label-maker’s message: “having to do with.”
Kin & Kindred
From 'character'·An engraved mark, imprint, or defining quality
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From '-istic'·Pertaining to or characterized by
Derived Terms
English words from this root