The story
- Ancient Greek · derived fromῥητορικός“concerning public speaking”
- Latin · derived fromrēthoricus
- Middle English · inherited fromrethorycal
- English todayrhetorical
From Middle English rethorycal, rethoricalle, rethorycall, from rethorik, rhetoric (noun) or Latin rēthoricus, rhētoricus, from Ancient Greek ῥητορικός (rhētorikós, “concerning public speaking”). By surface analysis, rhetoric + -al.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.