It isn't "short for" anything. This is just a normal suffix for fields of study: Physics, mechanics, politics, statistics, optics, ethics, linguistics, and so o

It isn't "short for" anything. This is just a normal suffix for fields of study: Physics, mechanics, politics, statistics, optics, ethics, linguistics, and so on. Etymologically it is a plural suffix, but in modern English it is singular. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-ics http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/-ics