Etymologically
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empirical

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪmˈpɪɹɪkəl/, /ɛmˈpɪɹɪkəl/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English empiric + -al,[2][3][4] or, as the OED puts it, from Late Latin empiricus and the English suffix.[5] The Latin adjective, in classical Latin chiefly a noun for a physician guided by experience,[5][4] is from Ancient Greek ἐμπειρικός (empeirikós, “experienced”),[4][6][7][8] from ἐμπειρία (empeiría, “experience”),[4][6][8] from ἔμπειρος (émpeiros, “skilled, experienced in”),[4][6][7][8] from ἐν (en, “in”) and πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt”),[6][4][8] from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, risk”).[4][7] The same Greek noun is related to expert, peril, pirate and repertory.[6] Some senses follow Middle French empirique and German empirisch.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In medicine, belonging to the ancient Greek and Roman school of physicians who held that treatment should rest on observation and experience rather than theory: 1569, in James Sanford's translation of Agrippa.[5][4] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged gives the 15th century.[9]

Semantic evolution

Because the medical empirics had no learned theory, the word soon became disparaging: from 1588 it described a person who was ignorant or only pretended to knowledge, from 1603 (in Dekker) a practitioner without formal training, a quack, and later (1623) a quack remedy.[5] The positive sense, of a person who seeks knowledge by direct observation and experiment instead of speculation, appears in the same year, 1588.[5] From 1641 the word also meant guided only by experience, without an understanding of the principles behind it;[5] Etymonline dates this general sense to 1757.[4] Philosophy gave it the sense "known through experience", as opposed to a priori, in a 1793 translation of Kant, after empirisch.[5] From 1838 it described the followers of empiricism.[5] In medicine it came back into neutral use from 1793, for treatment based on the outcome of earlier cases.[5] The adverb empirically, by means of observation and experiment, is from the 1640s.[4]

Timeline

  • 1569 – of the Empirics, an ancient school of medicine.[5]
  • 1588 – ignorant, charlatan; also, relying on observation and experiment.[5]
  • 1603 – of a medical practitioner, untrained, quack.[5]
  • 1641 – guided by experience without theory.[5]
  • 1656 – noun, a quack remedy (rare).[5]
  • 1793 – in philosophy, known through experience; in medicine, based on clinical experience.[5]
  • 1838 – practising philosophical empiricism.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Based on observation or experiment rather than on theory: The study gives empirical support to her model.[10][9][5]
  2. (medicine) Based on practical experience rather than scientific proof: an empirical treatment.[10][5]
  3. (philosophy) Of knowledge, derived from experience rather than from first principles; a posteriori.[10][5]

Word family

  • empirically
  • empiricalness
  • antiempirical
  • nonempirical
  • semiempirical
  • unempirical
  • empirical formula

Usage notes

Despite the resemblance, empirical is unrelated to empire.[6][8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins