cratic

From the suffix -cratic in words such as aristocratic, from French -cratique, from Ancient Greek -κρατικός (-kratikós). See -cratic for more.

cratic (comparative more cratic, superlative most cratic)

1. Relating to counterions.
   • 1962, Ronald Wilfred Gurney, Ionic Processes in Solution:

     If we go on to consider the reaction in a solution so dilute that the interionic forces make a negligible contribution to the communal term in ΔF, we may refer to the cratic term, instead of the communal term;

   • 1999, K. Zakrzewska, R. Lavery, “Modelling DNA-protein interactions”, in Computational Molecular Biology, edited by J. Leszczynski, →ISBN:

     Binding is however favoured by the non-salt dependent free energy, the ion-release cratic free energy and by decreased ion-ion repulsion.

   • 2012, Peter L. Privalov, Microcalorimetry of Macromolecules: The Physical Basis of Biological Structures, →ISBN:

     In the case of electrostatic entropy this is just what is expected if it represents the cratic entropy of mixing of the couterions released on binding with the ions in the bulk solution: it should be positive and independent of temperature.

2. (extremely rare) Relating to political or organisational power.
   • 1980, José Guilherme Merquior, Rousseau and Weber, →ISBN:

     Arthur Stinchcombe, for example, pioneered what we call the cratic approach when he defined legitimacy as a 'power reserve'.

   • 1987, The Polish Sociological Bulletin:

     The second personal factors influencing the phenomenon of the erosion of power is connected with the characteristics of cratic (power) motivation, also called the need for power.

   • 2004, Vittorio Hösle (translated by Steven Rendall), Morals and Politics, →ISBN:

     Anyone who seeks power is almost necessarily compelled to seek state power as well; to this extent the cratic inevitably refers to the political.

• Arctic, arctic