[ad. mod.L. tactic-us (17th c.), a. Gr. τακτικός of arrangement or tactics, f. τακτός ordered, vbl. adj. of τάσσειν to set in order. Cf. F. tactique (1690 in Furetière).]
† 1. Of or pertaining to military (or naval) tactics; = TACTICAL a. 1. Obs.
1604. Edmonds, Observ. Cæsar’s Comm., II. 129. The maner of our moderne training, or tacticke practise.
1635. Davenant, Madagascar (1638), 5. Men so exact, In Tactick Arts, both to designe and act.
1652. C. B. Stapylton, Herodian, 141. Skilfull in both parts of War, Tactick and Stratagematick.
1775. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 107/2. To … follow the tactick rules of the other European powers.
1831. Campbell, Power Russia, vii. The Russ will woo … All murder’s tactic arts.
2. Of or pertaining to arrangement or order.
1811–31. Bentham, Logic, Wks. 1843, VIII. 218/2. In the works of Aristotle … the tactic was scarcely considered in any other light than that of an instrument employed in carrying on the disputatious branch.
1871. Sir W. Thomson, in Daily News, 3 May. Visible or invisible … according to circumstances, not only of density, degree of illumination, and nearness, but also of tactic arrangement, as of a flock of birds.
1909. J. W. Jenkinson, Experim. Embryol., 272. Herbst classifies organic reactions to stimuli as either directive or formative. The former are … tactic when the response is some locomotion of a freer body.
