Author Topic: Empiric inconsistency?  (Read 730 times)

blackrockrose

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Empiric inconsistency?
« on: July 28, 2020, 06:47:24 PM »
I tried 'empiric' in yesterday's 10-letter EMPIRICIST game. It was classed as rare, so I didn't bother trying what turned out to be the seed word.

Should one of the words be reclassified?

pat

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2020, 08:49:14 PM »
I'd say that empiric was more common than empiricist.

mkenuk

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2020, 08:54:27 PM »
What about empirical ?

blackrockrose

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2020, 10:35:32 PM »
I don't think we can tell whether empirical would be accepted unless the appropriate letter combination turns up, can we?

mkenuk

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2020, 02:20:43 AM »
I was rather hoping that Alan, who knows such things, would let us know!

 :D

Alan W

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2020, 11:55:45 AM »
Empirical is certainly accepted. Empirical, empirically, empiricist and empiricism are all currently classed as common words.
Alan Walker
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Alan W

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2020, 02:31:40 PM »
The OED lists many senses for empiric, as both noun and adjective, but almost all of them are labeled as rare, obsolete or historical. As far as I can see the main current use of empiric is in specialist medical writings, as an adjective for medical treatments based solely on empirical results, where the reason for the treatment's effectiveness is unknown or uncertain. E.g. "empiric antibiotic therapy".

In more general contexts, empirical is used vastly more often than empiric. I think empiric should certainly remain in the rare category.

What about empiricist? It's certainly not as common as empirical. And like empiric, it is often found in academic publications. However, while empiric is almost always used in medical journals, empiricist, as both noun and adjective, appears in a great variety of scholarly writings, including publications dedicated to psychology, philosophy, political science, literature, legal studies, physics, etc. I even found the word in the Journal of Sex Research.

Is empiricist a word Chi players would probably know? Maybe it's a bit borderline, but I'm leaning these days to the view that things may as well be left as they are unless there seems to be a compelling reason to change. So I'm not satisfied empiricist should change from its common classification.
Alan Walker
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blackrockrose

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Re: Empiric inconsistency?
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2020, 02:41:10 PM »
Thank you Alan.