etymology - Where does the term “physical” come from?


Physical in the bodily sense appears to have developed independently from its root original term physic. So, for instance, you can say you do physical exercise to keep your body, not your physic, in good shape.



Physical meaning "having to do with the body, corporeal" is attested from 1780. Meaning "characterized by bodily attributes or activities" is attested from 1970. (Etymonline)



Note that you have physique in French and fisico in Italian and Spanish as nouns meaning body.


Given that, apparently, the adjective physical didn’t developed the bodily connotation in English from the noun physic, where does it come from?




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