"representative of animals," especially representative of a god in the form of an animal, 1872, from zoo- "animal" + morphē "shape," a word of uncertain etymology, + -ic. Related: Zoomorphism.
Entries linking to zoomorphic
zoo-
word-forming element meaning "animal, living being," from Greek zoion "an animal," literally "a living being," from PIE root *gwei- "to live" (source also of Greek bios "life").
-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.