a. and sb. [ad. Gr. ἐριστικ-ός, f. ἐρίζειν to wrangle, f. ἔρις strife.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to controversy or disputation; adapted for or disposed to controversy.
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., Ord. C iij. Polemicke and Eristicke discourses.
1655–60. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 145/1. A Sect … called … Eristick, from the Litigious Sophistical Nature thereof.
1710. W. Hume, Sacred Success., 28. The controversie among our eristick divines.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxvii. VIII. 540, note. Euthydemus and Dionysodorus … applied themselves to the eristic or controversial dialogue.
a. 1852. Moore, Devil among Schol., 72. He fought the combat syllogistic With … skill and art eristic.
B. sb.
1. One given to disputation, a controversialist. The Eristics: philosophers of the Megarian school.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., I. xii. 93. Fanatick Errour and Levity would seem an Euchite as well as an Eristick.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 480–1. But you would not confuse the principle and the consequences in your reasoning, like the Eristics.
2. = Gr. ἡ ἐριστικὴ (τέχνη), the art of disputation.
1866. Mill, in Edin. Rev., CXXIII. 314. Real Dialectic contrasted with Eristic.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 183. The art of Eristic, or fighting with words.
