Word of the Day

eristic \e-RIS-tik\

adjective
1. Also, eristical. pertaining to controversy or disputation; controversial.

noun
1. a person who engages in disputation; controversialist.

2. the art of disputation.

Quotes: Does free speech tend to move toward the truth or away from it? When does it evolve into a better collective understanding? When does it collapse into the Babel of trolling, the pointless and eristic game of talking the other guy into crying “uncle”?
-- Mattathias Schwartz, "The Trolls Among Us," New York Times, August 3, 2008

Origin of eristic: Eristic can be traced to the Greek adjective eristikós meaning "fond of wrangling" and further to the Greek noun éris meaning "discord." It entered English in the 1630s.