From , from , from , from ἐμπειρία ("experience, mere experience or practice without knowledge, especially in medicine, empiricism"), from ἔμπειρος ("experienced or practised in"), from ἐν ("in") + πεῖρα ("a trial, experiment, attempt").

• IPA: /ɛmˈpɪɹɪk/, /ɪmˈpɪɹɪk/

empiric

1. Empirical.

empiric (plural empirics)

1. (historical) A member of a sect of ancient physicians who based their theories solely on experience.
2. Someone who is guided by empiricism; an empiricist.
3. Any unqualified or dishonest practitioner; a charlatan; a quack.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:
     , New York Review, Books, 2001, p.257:

     An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more strange cures than a rational physician.

   • 1661, Robert Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, page 24:

     […] Paracelsus and some few other sooty Empiricks, rather then (as they are fain to call themselves) Philosophers, having their eyes darken'd, and their Brains troubl'd with the smoke of their own Furnaces, began to rail at the Peripatetick Doctrine, which they were too illiterate to understand […]

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “XIX. Of Wrong Assent, or Error”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC ↗, book IV, § 4, page 354 ↗:

     […] and must therefore swallow down Opinions, as silly People do Empiricks['] Pills, without knowing what they are made of […]

   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 33:

     To the disgust of doctors, the royal family at Versailles allowed one Brun, a wandering empiric […], to administer a proprietary ‘sovereign remedy’ to the ailing monarch.