Origin and history of atechnic

1610s, "technical, pertaining to an art," from Latin technicus, from Greek tekhnikos "of or pertaining to art, experienced in art, made by art," from tekhnē "art, skill, craft" (see techno-).

As a noun, "performance method of an art," by 1855, a nativization of technique. Specifically in music denoting all that applies to the purely mechanical part of performance (as distinguished from emotion, interpretation).

prefix meaning "not, without," from Greek a-, an- "not" (the "alpha privative"), from PIE root *ne- "not" (source also of English un-).

In words from Greek, such as abysmal, adamant, amethyst; also partly nativized as a prefix of negation (asexual, amoral, agnostic). The ancient alpha privatum, denoting want or absence.

Greek also had an alpha copulativum, a- or ha-, expressing union or likeness, which is the a- expressing "together" in acolyte, acoustic, Adelphi, etc. It is from PIE root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with."