[pl. of ACOUSTIC a. used as sb., on analogy of mathematics, politics, etc.; see -ICS. Usually treated as a singular.]
1. The science of sound, and of the phenomena of hearing.
1683. in Phil. Trans., XIV. 473. Hearing may be divided into Direct, Refracted and Reflex’d, which are yet nameless unless we call them Acousticks, Diacousticks, Catacousticks.
1692. Wood, Ath. Oxon., IV. 499 (1820). An introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds containing Some Proposals for the Improvement of Acoustics.
1805. Carlisle, in Phil. Trans., XCV. 198. A more intimate knowledge of the structure of the organs of hearing may illustrate the doctrines of acoustics.
1810. Coleridge, Friend, iii. 89 (1867). Which may easily impose on the soundest judgements, uninstructed in the optics and acoustics of the inner sense.
1830. Sir J. Herschel, Nat. Phil., 248. Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very considerable branch of physics.
1833. Brewster, Nat. Magic, i. 3. The science of Acoustics furnished the ancient sorcerers with some of their best deceptions.
2. Also pl. of ACOUSTIC sb. an acoustic medicine.
