physics

Etymology

1580s; from physic (see also -ics), from Middle English phisik, from Old French fisike (“natural science, art of healing”), from Latin physica (“study of nature”), from Ancient Greek φυσική (phusikḗ), feminine singular of φυσικός (phusikós, “natural; physical”), from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis, “origin; nature, property”), from Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “produce; bear; grow”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to appear, become, rise up”).

noun

1. The branch of science concerned with the study of the properties and interactions of space, time, matter and energy.
   An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention. 1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editors, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News, page 3
   The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier. 2012-03, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
   Newtonian physics was extended by Einstein to explain the effects of travelling near the speed of light; quantum physics extends it to account for the behaviour of atoms.
2. The physical aspects of a phenomenon or a system, especially those examined or studied scientifically.
   The physics of car crashes would not let Tom Cruise walk away like that.
   An analysis of media reports can correspondingly cast some light not only on how much physics is being reported, but on what branches of physics attract most popular attention. 1994, A.J Meadows, M.M Hancock-Beaulieu, editors, Front Page Physics: A Century of Physics in the News, page 3

noun

1. plural of physic

verb

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of physic