a. and sb. Forms: 6–7 emperic, -ike, -ique, -yke, empirike, -ique, -yke, empyrick, -yke, 7–8 emperick(e, empirick(e, empric(k(e, 6– empiric; also 6 impericke. [ad. L. empīricus, Gr. ἐuπειρικ-ός, f. ἐuπειρία experience, f. ἔμπειρος skilled, f. ἐν in + πεῖρα trial, experiment. In 17th c. usually (e·mpĭrik).]
A. adj. = EMPIRICAL in various senses. (The use as sb. occurs earlier in Eng., and the adjectival senses are chiefly derived from it.)
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. C 1. It is accounted an errour, to commit a naturall bodie to Emperique Phisitions.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. V., Wks. (1711), 90. This Empyrick Balm could the French apply to cure the Wounds of the Scottish Common-wealth.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 440. By fire Of sooty coal the Empiric Alchimist Can turn … Metals of drossiest Ore to perfet Gold.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., II. i. p. 30 (L.).
| And, in extremes, bold Counsels are the best, | |
| Like Emp’ric Remedies, they last are tri’d. |
1787. Phil. Trans., LXXVII. 43. They are only empiric, and not founded upon the theory and principles of gravitation.
1815. W. H. Ireland, Scribbleomania, 76. Empiric pigmies may prate about straws.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. v. 286. The combination of sensitive states by an empiric law of association.
B. sb.
1. A member of the sect among ancient physicians called Empirici (Ἐμπειρικοί), who (in opposition to the Dogmatici and Methodici) drew their rules of practice entirely from experience, to the exclusion of philosophical theory.
1541. R. Copland, Galyen’s Terap., 2 G ij. The whiche thynge the Emperykes vnderstande by onely experyence.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 344. Another faction and sect of Physitians, who … called themselues Empiriques.
1605. Timme, Quersit., Pref. 5. Among Physitians there are Empericks, Dogmaticks, Methodici, or Abbreuiators, and Paracelsians.
1738. J. Keill, Anim. Oecon., Pref. 30. The Doctrine of the Empiricks, which despises all Reasoning.
1805. Med. Jrnl., XIV. 446. The ancient empirics were peculiarly eminent for their talent of observation.
b. One who, either in medicine or in other branches of science, relies solely upon observation and experiment. Also fig.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, VI. vi. 665. Broom Rape is counted of some Empiriques (or practisioners) … for an excellent medicine.
1613. R. C., Table Alph. (ed. 3), Emperick, he that hath all his skill in phisicke by practise.
1858. Robertson, Lect., i. 11. A mere empiric in political legislation.
1873. E. E. Hale, In His Name, viii. 65/2. The Florentine would be called only an empiric by the science of to-day; that is to say, only a person who acts on the remembrance of the results of his observations.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, V. 100. The animals are pure empirics.
2. An untrained practitioner in physic or surgery: a quack.
[1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, O j. Than came there an onlerned Empyricus.]
1562. Bulleyn, Bk. Simples, 68 b. One called Edwardes, a doltish impericke.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. i. 125. We must not So staine our iudgement, or corrupt our hope, To prostitute our past-cure malladie To empericks.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. i. IV. i. There be many mountebanks, quack-salvers, Empericks, in every street.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Ep. C. Churchill, Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 85.
| Now Quack and Critic differ but in name, | |
| Empirics frontless both, they mean the same. |
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 369. Bone setters are another set of empirics.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, 164. They are hooting the empiric, The ignorant and incapable fool.
b. transf. A pretender, impostor, charlatan.
1640. Quarles, Enchirid., IV. lxxxix. Hee that beleeves with an implicite Faith, is a meere Empricke in Religion.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 22. A disesteemed Pettifogger, or Empyrick in Divinity.
1777. W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., cxii. The Bishop, supreme empiric, heals the minds and cures the consciences … by the same prescription.
1817. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 386. Such are the political empirics, mischievous in proportion to their effrontery, and ignorant in proportion to their presumption.
3. Comb. empiric-like adj. and adv.
1620. Melton, Astrolog., 9. He delivered this Emperike like Oration.
a. 1700. Dryden, Poems (1773), II. 179 (J.).
| Th’ illiterate writer, emp’ric like applies | |
| To minds diseas’d, unsafe, chance remedies. |
