[Ads-l] mediatic

[Ben Zimmer]

I'm somewhat reminded of "toyetic" ("suitable to be made into a
toy"), which Garson posted about here in 2012 (and was added to the OED in
2021).

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2012-June/120015.html

It was evidently coined in 1977 by Bernard Loomis, then president of the
Kenner toy company. The "-etic" suffix may have been inspired by words like
"genetic" or "aesthetic."

On Fri, Jun 26, 2026 at 12:08 PM Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com> wrote:

> I spotted this in a Boston Globe article:
>
>
> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/20/world/killing-gang-leader-trump-brings-war-on-terror-tactics-latin-america/
>
> “Historically, the kingpin strategy has led to fragmentation and greater
> violence, and in some cases it’s actually been counterproductive,” said
> McDermott, co-founder of the think tank Insight Crime. “It’s much more
> mediatic than strategic.”
>
> It didn't pop-up in searches of MWU, OED (whatever they offer for free
> on the web site), but Wiktionary had it:
>
> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mediatic:
>
> adj. Relating to the media <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/media#English>.
>
> 2017 quote from Charles Linscott
>
>  From /media <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/media#English>/ +‎ /-ic
> <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ic#English>/, with infix /-t-/ modelled
> on forms like /cinematic
> <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cinematic#English>/.
>
>
>

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