Grammatic

Grammatic is an adjective meaning pertaining to grammar—the systems and rules by which a language is structured, including syntax and morphology. In modern English, grammatic is rare and largely supplanted by grammatical in most contexts. When it does appear, it tends to occur in historical, philological, or stylistic writing rather than in everyday usage.

Etymology traces grammatic to the Latin grammaticus, meaning “of or belonging to grammar,” which itself comes from Greek grammatikos, “skilled in letters.” The term reached English through older stages of the language, often appearing alongside or as a variant of grammatical in early modern and medieval texts. Over time, grammatical became the dominant form in most contemporary contexts.

Today, grammatic is usually treated as archaic or literary. It may be encountered in discussions that aim to imitate older authors, in translations of historical works, or in analyses that emphasize grammar as a field of study rather than as a current usage marker. For ordinary writing, grammatical is preferred when describing language rules or conformity to grammar, while grammar remains the noun form referring to the system itself.