Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TOP'IC, n. [Gr. τοπος, place; L. topicus, topica; Sans. topu.]

1. Any subject of discourse or argument. The Scriptures furnish an unlimited number of topics for the preacher, and topics infinitely interesting.
2. In rhetoric, a probable argument drawn from the several circumstances and places of a fact. Aristotle wrote a book of topics. Cicero defines topics to be the art of finding arguments. Cyc.
3. Principle of persuasion. Contumacious persons whom no topics can work upon. Wilkins.
4. In medicine, an external remedy; a remedy to be applied outwardly to a particular part of the body, as a plaster, a poultice, a blister and the like. Cyc.