a. [ad. Gr. ἐνεργητικός active, f. ἐνεργέ-ειν to operate, effect. Now treated as if derived from ENERGY.]
† 1. Operative, engaged in action. Obs. rare.
1701. Grew, Cosmol. Sacra, I. i. 3–4 (R.). If then we will conceive of God truly…; we must look upon him … as a Being Eternally Energetick.
2. Powerfully operative.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., 204. An energetick remedy.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., Introd. p. xxxiii. A most energetic force presiding over the internal constitution of bodies.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 20. 141. I … found an energetic polarity in a mass at some distance below the summit.
1876. Tait, Rec. Adv. Phys. Sc., vi. 152. The most energetic chemicals.
3. Characterized by energy. Of persons: Strenuously active. Of movements, actions, expressions: Forcible, vigorous, emphatic.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, Wks. VIII. 240. The active and energetick part of the French nation, itself the most active and energetick of all nations.
1845. Whately, Rhet. (1850), 213. Many others, who are allowed to be elegant, are yet by no means vigorous and energetic.
1842. A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion, 126. The active and energetic respiration attendant on cheerfulness and buoyance of spirits.
1876. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Resources, Wks. (Bohn), II. 203. The world belongs to the energetic, belongs to the wise.
1881. Jowett, Thucyd., I. 99. All men are energetic when they are making a beginning.
Hence Energetics sb. pl. [on the analogy of mathematics, etc.], the doctrine or science of ENERGY.
1855. W. Rankine, in Edin. Philos. Jrnl., 125. Nature of the Science of Energetics.
1881. Armstrong, in Nature, No. 619. 452. That branch of science which … I may provisionally term ‘Animal Energetics.’
