What makes a mattress pedic?

[Interrobang]

Okay, I do know that there’s no regulating body out there that permits or disallows the use of -pedic as an impressive-sounding suffix.

But what does “-pedic” mean? I assume that mattresses (Tempur-Pedic, Posturepedic, Supple-Pedic, etc.) use it because it comes from “orthopedics,” and is therefore supposed to sound like it’s good for your skeleton.

The dictionaries I have access to break down “orthopedics” this way:

ortho-, from the Greek orthos, meaning “correct”
the Greek pais, meaning “child”

Child? Where does child come in to this? And does the suffix “-pedic” appear in any non-marketing-derived English words? If so, what does it mean?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

http://www.amirmd.com/ortho-info/Ortho-history.html

The Basic History of Orthopedic Surgery:

The formal beginning of orthopedic surgery began in 1741. The word l’Orthopedie was part of a title of a book written by Nicolas Andry (1658-1742) in Paris, France. This book, L’Orthopedie, ou l’art de prevenir et de corriger dans les enfans, les difformites du corps, was actually written for parents and was mostly concerned with raising children. Andry derived the word orthopedie from the Greek words ORTHO (straight) and PED (child). Translated to English in 1943 and changing the title to English, the book title was now Orthopaedia: or the art of Correcting and Preventing Deformities in Children. The book also included some figures, one of which is now the logo of the specialty of orthopedics (Figure 1). Andry, therefore, is credited as the first to coin the term ORTHOPAEDIC.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

“encyclopedic”?