Dictionary

scientify en · VERB

Etymology

From scient(ific) + -ify.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To make scientific; to subject to scientific rules.
   • Textbooks were written that portrayed Chinese medicine as a theoretical and practical whole, and they were taught in newly founded academies of so-called “traditional Chinese medicine,” […]. Needless to say, the academies were anything but traditional, striving valiantly to “scientify” the teachings of classics that often contradicted one another and themselves. 2013 October 22, Alan Levinovitz, “Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine”, in Slate:
   • I am aware it is not so flattering to scientify men into atoms, as if, with others, I were to mystify them into angels. But I can only regret to find it impossible to humour them in this serious matter, consistly with their own interest and that of truth. 1851, James O'Connell, Vestiges of Civilization: Or, the Ætiology of History, Religious, Æsthetical, Political, and Philosophical, New York: H. Baillière, page 183:

Forms

Synonyms

scientize