"that which reduces fever," 1680s, from anti- + Greek pyretos "fever, burning heat," related to pyr "fire" (from PIE root *paewr- "fire") + -ic. As an adjective, "reducing fever," 1837.
Entries linking to antipyretic
anti-
word-forming element of Greek origin meaning "against, opposed to, opposite of, instead," shortened to ant- before vowels and -h-, from Old French anti- and directly from Latin anti-, from Greek anti (prep.) "over, against, opposite; instead, in the place of; as good as; at the price of; for the sake of; compared with; in opposition to; in return; counter-," from PIE *anti "against," also "in front of, before" (from root *ant- "front, forehead," with derivatives meaning "in front of, before"), which became anti- in Italian (hence antipasto) and French.
It is cognate with Sanskrit anti "over, against," and Old English and- (the first element in answer). A common compounding element in Greek, in some combinations it became anth- for euphonic reasons. It appears in some words in Middle English but was not commonly used in English word formations until modern times. In a few English words (anticipate, antique) it represents Latin ante.
In noun compounds where it has the sense of "opposed to, opposite" (Antichrist, anti-communist) the accent remains on the anti-; in adjectives where it retains its old prepositional sense "against, opposed to," the accent remains on the other element (anti-Christian, anti-slavery).
*paewr-
*paəwr-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "fire."
It forms all or part of: antipyretic; burro; empyreal; empyrean; fire; pyracanth; pyre; pyretic; pyrexia; pyrite; pyro-; pyrolusite; pyromania; pyrrhic; sbirro.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit pu, Hittite pahhur "fire;" Armenian hur "fire, torch;" Czech pyr "hot ashes;" Greek pyr, Umbrian pir "fire;" Old English fyr, German Feuer "fire."
-ic
Middle English -ik, -ick, word-forming element making adjectives, "having to do with, having the nature of, being, made of, caused by, similar to," from French -ique and directly from Latin -icus or from cognate Greek -ikos "in the manner of; pertaining to." From PIE adjective suffix *-(i)ko, which also yielded Slavic -isku, adjectival suffix indicating origin, the source of the -sky (Russian -skii) in many surnames. In chemistry, indicating a higher valence than names in -ous (first in benzoic, 1791).
In Middle English and after often spelled -ick, -ike, -ique. Variant forms in -ick (critick, ethick) were common in early Modern English and survived in English dictionaries into early 19c. This spelling was supported by Johnson but opposed by Webster, who prevailed.