eristic

American  

[e-ris-tik] / ɛˈrɪs tɪk /

adjective

1. Also eristical. pertaining to controversy or disputation; controversial.

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noun

1. a person who engages in disputation; controversialist.

2. the art of disputation.

eristic British  

/ ɛˈrɪstɪk /

adjective

1. of, relating, or given to controversy or logical disputation, esp for its own sake

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noun

1. a person who engages in logical disputes; a controversialist

2. 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

Example Sentences

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

The philosophy which in the first and second generation was a great and inspiring effort of reflection, in the third becomes sophistical, verbal, eristic.

From Euthydemus by Jowett, Benjamin