zeteticalhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zetetical_adj%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_usezetetical, adj. & n.
Revised 2018

zeteticaladjective & noun

  1. adjective
    1. 1646–
      Inquiring, investigating; proceeding by inquiry or investigation; = zetetic adj.
      1. 1646
        A Zeteticall Logista cares not to know what R.T. a or b signify.
        J. Pell, Letter 25 January in John Pell & his Correspondence with Charles Cavendish (2005) 454
      2. 1873
        By strict deduction, by a purely zetetical process,..the peculiarity of the Bedford signals is explained.
        J. Naylor, Bedford Canal Not Convex 13
      3. 1915
        We should have thought that a biographer's primary duty was to be zetetical—that is, to proceed by inquiry.
        Athenæum 6 February 126/2
      4. 2009
        Montaigne's novelty of style shows..a desire to remove any illusion of certainty in a pure, endless zetetical searching.
        V. R. Rosaleny in J. R. M. Neto et al., Skepticism Modern Age i. 66
  2. noun
    1. 1882–
      Chiefly with the. Short for Zetetical Society n.
      1. 1882
        8 p.m. Zetetical: ‘Vivisection,’ by Mrs. Anna Kingsford.
        Academy 7 January 11/3
      2. 1905
        After about a year of the Zetetical I joined the Dialectical.
        G. B. Shaw, Letter 3 January (1972) vol. II. 486
      3. 2000
        In the days of the Zetetical, Sidney showed neither the clearness nor the coolness that Shaw retrospectively attributed to him.
        R. Harrison, Life & Times S. & B. Webb i. i. 24

Originally published as part of the entry for zetetic, adj. & n.

zetetical, adj. & n. was revised in June 2018.

zetetical, adj. & n. was last modified in July 2023.