I have finally gotten back on track with my book reading and daily search for my word-of-the-day. As you might have guessed, I find these words in my regular everyday reading, instead of picking them out of a vocabulary list somewhere. I found this under-used word in the articulate polemic, The Republican War on Science, by my friend and fellow SciBling, Chris Mooney, which was recently re-released in trade paperback. If you haven't read this book yet, now is the time (I've read it once already in hard-cover, but never reviewed it, so I am going to rectify that oversight in the near future by reviewing this updated paperback).
polemic (puh-LEM-ik, poh-) [Greek polemikós of or for war, equivalent to pólem(os) war + -ikos -ic]
-noun
- a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
- a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.
-adjective. - Also, po‧lem‧i‧cal. of or pertaining to a polemic; controversial.
Usage: Critics often charged that [Rachael] Carson had used bad science in her arguments. And she had, after all, written a popular book [Silent Spring], a polemic rather than a dissertation.
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