eristic
Americanadjective
noun
-
a person who engages in disputation; controversialist.
-
the art of disputation.
adjective
noun
-
a person who engages in logical disputes; a controversialist
-
the art or practice of logical disputation, esp if specious
Other Word Forms
- eristically adverb
Etymology
Origin of eristic
1630–40; < Greek eristikós, equivalent to erist ( ós ) (verbid of erízein, derivative of éris discord) + -ikos -ic
Explanation
If you love to argue, you're eristic. Being eristic is a fairly common quality for a debater to have. Eristic describes things that have to do with an argument, or simply the tendency to debate, especially when someone loves to win an argument and values that more highly than arriving at the truth. The person doing the arguing can also be called an eristic: "It makes me mad when that eristic wins his debates with his false arguments." The Greek root word is eris, "strife or discord."
Vocabulary lists containing eristic
Rhetoric
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Rhetoric
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
What eristic discipline they brought to their sciolistic quibbles, though prone to occasional bursts of rodomontade!
From Washington Post • Aug. 21, 2015
Sulzberger's congeners will be pleased to find that The Tooth Merchant, though occasionally eristic, never stoops to flocculence.
From Time Magazine Archive
Within the war room, the atmosphere is informal, spirited, irreverent, eristic -- and often openly critical of GM's past practices.
From Time Magazine Archive
Socrates disclaims the character of a professional eristic, and also, with a sort of ironical admiration, expresses his inability to attain the Megarian precision in the use of terms.
From Theaetetus by Jowett, Benjamin
Sophistry, logomachy, eristic: we may learn what these are, sometimes, from Plato's own practice.
From Plato and Platonism by Pater, Walter
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
