unscience
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English unscience (“false knowledge or understanding”), equivalent to un- + science.
Noun edit
unscience (countable and uncountable, plural unsciences)
- That which is unscientific or pseudoscientific.
- 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer, Boethius and Troilus:
- And at the laste, yif that any wight wene a thing to ben other weyes thanne it is, it is nat only unscience, but it is deceivable opinioun ful diverse and fer fro the sothe of science.
- 1900, John Vosburgh Stevens, editor, The Annual of Eclectic Medicine and Surgery:
- It has been used in medicine from time immemorial; but until recently its use was nothing more than a species of mere unscience, shadowed in mystery.
- 1973, Janet Lembke, Bronze and Iron:
- Misapplication of this practical connection leads to such unsciences as astrology and alchemy and, with the Romans, augury.