empiric
nounEtymology 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”). Not related to empire.
1
Historical 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.
- An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician., New York Review, Books, 2001, p.257
- […] 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 […]1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, page 24:
3 more examples
- […] and must therefore swallow down Opinions, as silly People do Empiricks['] Pills, without knowing what they are made of[…]1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “XIX. Of Wrong Assent, or Error”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book IV, § 4, page 354:
- The fact is, that since a good, sound, honest, efficient, automatic, nonmetallic currency and standard was tampered with in 1893, India has been a happy hunting-ground for any empiric who conjured with a new scheme of currency, no matter how fantastic.1913 January, Moreton Frewen, “The Great Drain of Gold to India”, in The Nineteenth Century and After: A Monthly Review Founded by James Knowles, volume LXXIII, number CCCCXXXI, New York, N.Y.: Leonard Scott Publication Co.; London: Spottiswoode & Co. Ltd., printers, →OCLC, page 59:
- 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.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 33: