"branch of ethics which treats of the doctrines of pleasure," 1865, from hedonic; also see -ics.
Entries linking to hedonics
hedonic adj.
"of or relating to pleasure," also, "of or having to do with the Cyrenaic school of philosophy," 1650s, from Greek hēdonikos "pleasurable," from hēdone "pleasure" (see hedonist).
-ics
in the names of sciences or disciplines (acoustics, aerobics, economics, etc.), a 16c. revival of the classical custom of using the neuter plural of adjectives with Greek -ikos "pertaining to" (see -ic) to mean "matters relevant to" and also as the titles of treatises about them. Subject matters that acquired their English names before c. 1500, however, tend to be singular in form (arithmetic, logic, magic, music, rhetoric). The grammatical number of words in -ics (mathematics is/mathematics are) is a confused question.