Science

Science, sī′ens, n. knowledge systematised: truth ascertained: pursuit of knowledge or truth for its own sake: knowledge arranged under general truths and principles: that which refers to abstract principles, as distinguished from 'art:' pre-eminent skill: trade: a department of knowledge.—n. Scib′ile, something capable of being known.—adjs. Scī′enced, versed, learned; Scī′ent, knowing; Scien′tial (Milt.), producing science: skilful; Scientif′ic, -al (obs.), producing or containing science: according to, or versed in, science: used in science: systematic: accurate.—adv. Scientif′ically.—ns. Scī′entism, the view of scientists; Scī′entist, one who studies science, esp. natural science.—adjs. Scientis′tic.—adv. Scī′ently, knowingly.—n. Scient′olism, false science, superficial knowledge.—Scientific frontier, a term used by Lord Beaconsfield in 1878 in speaking of the rectification of the boundaries between India and Afghanistan, meaning a frontier capable of being occupied and defended according to the requirements of the science of strategy, in opposition to 'a hap-hazard frontier.'—Absolute science, knowledge of things in themselves; Applied science, when its laws are exemplified in dealing with concrete phenomena; Dismal science, political economy; Gay science, a medieval name for belles-lettres and poetry generally, esp. amatory poetry; Inductive science (see Induct); Liberal science, a science cultivated from love of knowledge, without view to profit; Mental science, mental philosophy, psychology; Moral science, ethics, the science of right and wrong, moral responsibility; Occult science, a name applied to the physical sciences of the middle ages, also to magic, sorcery, witchcraft, &c.; Sanitary science (see Sanitary); The exact sciences, the mathematical sciences; The science, the art of boxing; The seven liberal sciences, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy—these were the seven Terrestrial sciences, as opposed to the seven Celestial sciences, civil law, Christian law, practical theology, devotional theology, dogmatic theology, mystic theology, and polemical theology. [Fr.,—L. scientia—sciens, -entis, pr.p. of scīre, to know.]