pl. elenchi. [L. elench-us, a. Gr. ἔλεγχος cross-examination. (Sense 3 appears to be only Lat.; perh. another word.)]
1. a. Logic. ELENCH 1. b. Socratic elenchus: the method pursued by Socrates of eliciting truth by means of short question and answer.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. III. 123.
| And I shall bring you, with your pack | |
| Of Fallacies, t’ Elenchi back. |
1721–1800. in Bailey.
1850. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2), 116. My [Socrates’] elenchus is nothing better in itself than the logic … of any other professor.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., § 127. 271. Admitting the apparent correctness of the opposing argument, we may prove the contradictory of its conclusion by an unassailable argument of our own, which is then called an Elenchus (ἔλεγχος).
1874. Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, xi. 340. Such people … cared little about even the Socratic elenchus.
1878. Geo. Eliot, Coll. Breakf. P., 713. No dull elenchus makes a yoke for her.
2. = ELENCH 2. Obs.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
† 3. Antiq. (See quot.)
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Elenchus in antiquity, a kind of ear-ring set with pearls. In mod. Dicts.
