science

Etymology 1

From Middle English science, scyence, borrowed from Old French science, escience, from Latin scientia (“knowledge”), from sciens, the present participle stem of scire (“to know”).

noun

1. (countable) A particular discipline or branch of learning, especially one dealing with measurable or systematic principles rather than intuition or natural ability.
   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month. 2013-08-03, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
   Of course in my opinion Social Studies is more of a science than an art.
2. Specifically the natural sciences.
   My favorite subjects at school are science, mathematics, and history.
3. (uncountable, archaic) Knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area.
   Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy 1819, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Hamlet
4. (now only theology) The fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth.
5. (uncountable) The collective discipline of study or learning acquired through the scientific method; the sum of knowledge gained from such methods and discipline.
   That this use should be destructive is no doubt very deplorable, but Science knows no distinctions of the sort, but follows knowledge wherever it may lead. 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine
   What is it that has produced this new prodigious speed of man? Science is the cause. Her feeble groping fingers lifted here and there, often trampled underfoot, often frozen in isolation, have now become a vast organized, united, class-conscious army marching forward upon all the fronts toward objectives none may measure or define. November 15, 1931, Winston Churchill, “Fifty Years Hence”, in Maclean's, archived from the original on 2020-07-18
   I have found no better expression than "religious" for confidence in the rational nature of reality […] Whenever this feeling is absent, science degenerates into uninspired empiricism. 1951 January 1, Albert Einstein, letter to Maurice Solovine, as published in Letters to Solovine (1993)
   In an era when political leaders promise deliverance from decline through America’s purported preeminence in scientific research, the news that science is in deep trouble in the United States has been as unwelcome as a diagnosis of leukemia following the loss of health insurance. 2012-01, Philip E. Mirowski, “Harms to Health from the Pursuit of Profits”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 87
6. (uncountable) Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort.
   While much good science has come from the Hubble telescope (including the most reliable measure to date for the expansion rate of the universe), you would never know from media accounts that the foundation of our cosmic knowledge continues to flow primarily from the analysis of spectra and not from looking at pretty pictures. 2001 September, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Over the rainbow”, in Natural History, volume 110, number 7, page 30
7. (uncountable, collective) The scientific community.
   Science knows it doesn't know everything; otherwise, it'd stop. 2008, HMV Hammersmith Apollo, in Dara Ó Briain Talks Funny – Live in London, spoken by stand-up comedian (Dara Ó Briain), United Kingdom, published 2008
   With wildfires raging across the West, climate change took center stage in the race for the White House on Monday as former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called President Trump a “climate arsonist” while the president said that “I don’t think science knows” what is actually happening. 2020-09-14, “As Trump Again Rejects Science, Biden Calls Him a ‘Climate Arsonist’”, in New York Times
   There are plenty of earnestly respectful vaccine selfies, where the inoculated person bares a shoulder and thanks science for their shot. 2021-04-27, Amanda Hess, “Inject the Vaccine Fan Fiction Directly Into My Veins”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   I expected it from politicians. I didn’t expect it from science. 2021-06-03, Katherine Eban, quoting Robert Redfield, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, in Vanity Fair
8. (euphemistic, with definite article) Synonym of sweet science (“the sport of boxing”)
   From a conviction, that the science is universally understood, the strong are taught humility, and the weak confidence. Many have laughed at the idea, that Boxing is of national service, but they have laughed at the expence of truth. 1816, The art and practice of English boxing, page v
   […] for not a blow or guard in boxing will repay you more than the cross-counter, which may well be called the sheet-anchor of the science. 1888, William Edwards, Art of Boxing and Science of Self-Defense

verb

1. (transitive, dated) To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct.
   I mock'd at all religious Fear, Deep-scienced in the mazy Lore Of mad Philosophy 1742, Philip Francis, Odes, Epodes, and Carmen Seculare of Horace in Latin and English
2. (transitive, colloquial, humorous) To use science to solve a problem.

Etymology 2

See scion.

noun

1. Obsolete spelling of scion