diabetic adj.

medical name of a set of affections characterized by abnormal discharge of urine, 1560s, from medical Latin diabetes, from late Greek diabetes "excessive discharge of urine" (so named by Aretaeus the Cappadocian, physician of Alexandria, 2c.), literally "a passer-through, siphon," from diabainein "to pass through," from dia "through" (see dia-) + bainein "to go, walk, step" (from PIE root *gwa- "to go, come").

Now usually restricted to diabetes mellitus, which is characterized by an excessive quantity of sugar in the urine. An old common native name for it was pissing evil. In classical Greek, diabainein meant "to stand or walk with the legs apart," and diabetes meant "a drafting compass," from the position of the legs.

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.