Relating to an academy, school, or the scholarly world; of or pertaining to academic study and learning.
From academy plus the suffix -ical (a more emphatic form of -ic), which intensifies or extends the meaning. This is an older, more formal variant of 'academic' that was especially common in 17th-18th century English.
Words ending in -ical (-ical vs. -ic) create a curious spectrum: 'academic' and 'academical' mean almost the same thing, but 'academical' sounds stuffy and old-fashioned to modern ears, like comparing 'historic' to 'historical'—the -ical form often feels weightier.
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