Panical is from panic + -al. Panic comes from French panique, from Greek panikos 'pertaining to Pan', the god whose presence in lonely places was thought to inspire sudden, contagious fear. Important recorded forms include panikós (Ancient Greek) and Pán (Ancient Greek). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers of, relating to, or marked by panic. The wider family includes derived forms such as panically and related words such as panic, panicky, and pandemonium.