pacific

• pacifick (obsolete)

From Middle French pacifique.

• IPA^(key): /pəˈsɪfɪk/

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• Rhymes: -ɪfɪk

pacific (comparative more pacific, superlative most pacific)

1. Calm, peaceful.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:calm

   • 1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “After Twenty Years”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC, page 214:

     The policeman on the beat moved up the avenue impressively. […] Trying doors as he went, twirling his club with many intricate and artful movements, turning now and then to cast his watchful eye adown the pacific thoroughfare, the officer, with his stalwart form and slight swagger, made a fine picture of a guardian of the peace.

2. Preferring peace by nature; avoiding violence.

   Synonyms: peaceable, peaceful, dovish, nonviolent

   Antonyms: bellicose, hawkish, martial, militant, violent

   • 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 3:

     The long-continued hostilities which had for centuries divided the south and the north divisions of the Island of Britain, had been happily terminated by the succession of the pacific James I, to the English crown.

• Pacific Ocean

• pacify
• pacifism
• pacifist

Borrowed from Latin pacificus or French pacifique or Italian pacifico.

pacific m or n (feminine singular pacifică, masculine plural pacifici, feminine and neuter plural pacifice)

1. peaceable, peaceful