empiricallyadv.
/ɪmˈpɪrᵻkli/, /ɛmˈpɪrᵻkli/, U.S. /ᵻmˈpɪrᵻk(ə)li/, /ɛmˈpɪrᵻk(ə)li/ 1. Medicine. In the manner of an empiric (see empiric n. 2) (now historical); on the basis of clinical experience or judgement (cf. empirical adj. 1d).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > healer > physician > [adverb] > lacking knowledge
empirically1631
1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies i. 5 He ha's some small scruple of Physitian..and can most Empyrically discourse of the state of your Body.
1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 105 An experiment in Physick..brought to effect many times Empirically, Quack-salvingly, ignorantly.
1709 J. Floyer Ψυχρολουσια (ed. 3) i. 160 Let every Person consult some Physician,..and..first use all proper Methods of inward Medicines, and after them use Cold Baths, Secundum artem, and not Empirically.
1822 Q. Jrnl. Foreign & Brit. Med. & Surg. 4 173 If these views are correct, nothing can be more preposterous than the local stimulants which are so often empirically applied.
1872 T. G. Thomas Pract. Treat. Dis. Women (ed. 3) 64 The advice is too often given empirically.
1904 A. H. Buck Ref. Handbk. Med. Sci. (rev. ed.) VIII. 272/2 First discovered accidentally, and then practised empirically, Copeman's procedure has an established in the treatment of severe cases [of vomiting of pregnancy].
1979 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 23 Mar. 1269/2 Erythromycin was administered empirically for what was considered to be a nonbacterial or atypical community-acquired pneumonia.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Dec. 29/1 Jeffrey's story only properly starts when an empirically minded vicar begins dosing the feverish citizens of Oxfordshire with dried willow bark.
2. By means of experience, observation, or experiment; (also) demonstrably, verifiably. Cf. empirical adj. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > endeavour > trial or experiment > [adverb] > empirically
experimently1546
experimentally1593
experiencedly1617
empirically1646
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica vi. xii. 334 For wee shall emperically and sensibly discourse hereof.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. Concl. 192 Philosophy..will Empirically and Sensibly canvass the Phænomena of Nature.
1798 tr. I. Kant Ess. & Treat. I. 116 Laws which are founded, independently on nature, not empirically, but in reason merely.
1809 S. T. Coleridge Friend 10 Aug. 39 A School-master is under the necessity of teaching a certain Rule in simple arithmetic empirically.
1879 tr. T. A. L. Du Moncel Telephone 52 I sought..to discover empirically the exact effect of each element.
1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens & their Magic II. vi. 233 The belief that to know the name of a thing is to get a hold on it is thus empirically true.
1957 A. Ellis Let. 24 Nov. in I. L. Reiss & A. Ellis At Dawn of Sexual Revol. (2002) 86 Stevenson differentiates beliefs from what he calls ‘attitudes’..these, he says, and I agree with him, are not empirically validatable or disprovable, and therefore it is pointless to argue about them.
2010 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 Dec. 48/3 He identifies several empirically established happiness-destroyers as targets.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.1631