MDMD(6): 'Topick'

[Michel Ryckx]

"Mason [. . .] might have shar'd his Moral Displeasure were the Topick
not Food [. . .]"

(Having made this lemma a bit more lisible.  This is the last one from
the Oxford English Dictionary)

Note 'Davids Topicks' under II. 4

topic , a. and n. Also 6 topicke, (toopick), 7 topike, -ique, -yc, 7_8
-ick.
[. . .]

Aristotle's treatise on probable (as distinguished from demonstrative)
reasoning, which started from such general considerations and dispensed
with special knowledge, was referred to as 'topoi'; and such general
considerations and arguments based thereon as were treated of in that
work were called topic axioms, rules, or maxims, topic arguments, or
simply topics; sometimes with less, sometimes with more emphasis on the
general character of such arguments. (C. C. J. Webb.)]

A. adj.
I. 1.
a. Pertaining to or of the nature of a _commonplace' (commonplace A. 1)
or general maxim. rule topic, a general rule, which may fail to apply in
a particular case, so that its application is only probable and not
certain: see above. Obs.
1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 117 b, You fayle in the rule Topicke:
whereby we are taught to apply true proper Causes, to true effectes. And
therefore your consequent is faultie.

b. Containing _commonplaces'; topic folio, a commonplace-book. Obs.
1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 64 To finish his circuit in an English
concordance and a topic folio, the gatherings and savings of a sober
graduatship, a Harmony and a Catena.

II. 2.
a. Of or pertaining to a particular place or locality; local. Obs.
1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 691 These Locall or Topick Gods doe never
passe unto other Countries.

b. Med. Of or pertaining to a particular part of the body; designed for
external local application.
1601 Holland Pliny xxix. vi. II. 364 The places ought before the
application of those topicke medicines, to be well prepared with the
razour.

B. n.
I. Representing Gr.

1. pl. As title of the treatise of Aristotle, or as name for a work of
the same nature, or for a set of general rules or maxims.
1603
1783 Blair Lect. xxxii. II. 180 These Topics or Loci, were no other than
general ideas applicable to a great many different subjects, which the
Orator was directed to consult, in order to find out materials for his
Speech.

2.
a. A kind or class of considerations suitable to the purpose of a
rhetorician or disputant: passing into the sense consideration',
argument'. Obs.
1634 Jackson Creed xi. xxvii. _4 A new topic or frame of arguments which
they draw from this.

b. A head under which arguments or subjects may be arranged. (This
passes imperceptibly into 3.) Obs.
1661 Fuller Worthies, Linc. (1662) ii. 150 What remaineth concerning
Mastiffes is referred to the same Topick in Somerset-shire.

3.
a. The subject of a discourse, argument, or literary composition; a
matter treated in speech or writing; a theme; also, a subject of
admiration, animadversion, satire, mockery, or other treatment.
1720 Swift Intelligencer No. 3 Wks. 1761 III. 363 It is allowed that
Corruptions in religion, politics, and law, may be proper topics for
this kind of satire.

b. Gram. The part of a sentence which is marked as that on which the
rest of the sentence makes a statement (comment), asks a question, etc.
Topic sometimes corresponds to subject, but the topic/comment contrast
is not necessarily the same as that of subject/predicate.
1958 C. F. Hockett Course in Mod. Linguistics xxiii. 201 In English and
the familiar languages of Europe, topics are usually also subjects, and
comments are predicates.

II.
4. Med. An external remedy locally applied, as a plaster or blister.
Obs.
1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. iii. 60 Their Cities being one of David's Topicks
or place where he haunted.

III. Comb., as (sense 3 b) topic-neutral adj.;
topic-(and-)comment, (based on) the dichotomy in grammar of topic and
comment.
1964