Politics
The word comes from the same Greek word from which the title of Aristotle's book "Politics" (Πολιτικά, "Polis") also derives; "polis" means "affairs of the cities". The book title was rendered in Early Modern English in the mid-15th century as "Polettiques"; it became "politics" in Modern English. The singular "politic" first attested in English 1430 and comes from Middle French "politique", in turn from Latin "politicus", which is the Latinization of the Greek πολιτικός ("politikos"), meaning amongst others "of, for, or relating to citizens", "civil", "civic", "belonging to the state", in turn from πολίτης ("polites"), "citizen" and that from πόλις ("polis"), "city".
Hereditary politicians
It should not be confused with political dynasty though these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Political dynasty or political family simply means that several members of the same family (whether related by blood or marriage) are involved in politics, regardless of the type of office. Thus, hereditary politician can be said to be a more specific subset of political dynasty as it refers to the next generation/s gaining the same political office as their parent or grandparent.