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Webster 1913 Edition

Empiric

Em-pir′ic

(?; 277)
,
Noun.
[L.
empiricus
an empiric, Gr. [GREEK] experienced, equiv. to [GREEK]; [GREEK] in + [GREEK] a trial, experiment; akin to [GREEK] ford, way, and E.
fare
: cf. F.
empirique
. See
In
, and
Fare
.]
1.
One who follows an empirical method; one who relies upon practical experience.
2.
One who confines himself to applying the results of mere experience or his own observation; especially, in medicine, one who deviates from the rules of science and regular practice; an ignorant and unlicensed pretender; a quack; a charlatan.
Among the Greek physicians, those who founded their practice on experience called themselves
empirics
.
Krauth-Fleming.

Webster 1828 Edition

Empiric

EM'PIRIC

,
Noun.
[Gr. to attempt; L. empiricus.]
Literally, one who makes experiments. Hence its appropriate signification is, a physician who enters on practice without a regular professional education, and relies on the success of his own experience. Hence,the word is used also for a quack, an ignorant pretender to medical skill, a charlatan.

Definition 2024

empiric

empiric

English

Alternative forms

Adjective

empiric

  1. empirical

Translations

Noun

empiric ‎(plural empirics)

  1. A member of a sect of ancient physicians who based their theories solely on experience.
  2. Someone who is guided by empiricism; an empiricist.
  3. Any unqualified or dishonest practitioner; a charlatan; a quack.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York Review, Books, 2001, p.257:
      An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician.
    • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, p.24:
      […] Paracelsus and some few other sooty Empiricks, rather then (as they are fain to call themselves) Philosophers, having their eyes darken'd, and their Brains troubl'd with the smoke of their own Furnaces, began to rail at the Peripatetick Doctrine, which they were too illiterate to understand […].
    • John Locke
      Swallow down opinions as silly people do empirics' pills.
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p.33:
      To the disgust of doctors, the royal family at Versailles allowed one Brun, a wandering empiric […], to administer a proprietary ‘sovereign remedy’ to the ailing monarch.

Translations

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowing from French empirique and Latin empīricus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /emˈpi.rik/

Adjective

empiric m, n ‎(feminine singular empirică, masculine plural empirici, feminine and neuter plural empirice)

  1. empirical

Declension

Related terms

  • empirism
  • empirist

Etymology

From Old French empirique, from Latin empiricus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπειρικός ‎(empeirikós, “experienced”), from ἐμπειρία ‎(empeiría, “experience, mere experience or practice without knowledge, especially in medicine, empiricism”), from ἔμπειρος ‎(émpeiros, “experienced or practised in”), from ἐν ‎(en, “in”) + πεῖρα ‎(peîra, “a trial, experiment, attempt”).

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