pragmatic: [16] The base *prak-, which produced Greek praktós (source of English practice), also lies behind Greek prágma ‘deed, affair’. From this was derived pragmatikós ‘skilled in affairs’, which passed into English via late Latin pragmaticus. => practice
pragmatic (adj.)
1610s, "meddlesome, impertinently busy," short for earlier pragmatical, or else from Middle French pragmatique (15c.), from Latin pragmaticus "skilled in business or law," from Greek pragmatikos "fit for business, active, business-like; systematic," from pragma (genitive pragmatos) "a deed, act; that which has been done; a thing, matter, affair," especially an important one; also a euphemism for something bad or disgraceful; in plural, "circumstances, affairs" (public or private), often in a bad sense, "trouble," literally "a thing done," from stem of prassein/prattein "to do, act, perform" (see practical). Meaning "matter-of-fact" is from 1853. In some later senses from German pragmatisch.
