Producing or resulting in good; beneficial or favorable, especially used in astrology to describe favorable planetary influences.
From Latin beneficus 'doing good,' from bene 'well' + facere 'to do.' The word dates to Middle English and was especially common in astrological texts where planets were classified as benefic or malefic.
Astrology gave this word its job: astrologers used 'benefic' and 'malefic' as technical terms, and centuries later the word survives mainly in that specialized vocabulary, like a dinosaur footprint in a specific geological layer.
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