eristic vs mess

eristic

noun
  • One who makes specious arguments; one who is disputatious. 

  • A type of dialogue or argument where the participants do not have any reasonable goal. The aim is to argue for the sake of conflict, and often to see who can yell the loudest. 

adj
  • Provoking strife, controversy or discord. 

mess

noun
  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding. 

  • A building or room in which mess is eaten. 

  • A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table. 

  • The milk given by a cow at one milking. 

  • A large quantity or number. 

  • Excrement. 

  • A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck. 

  • A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool. 

  • A group of iguanas. 

  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner). 

verb
  • To eat (with others). 

  • To make soiled by ejaculating. 

  • To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to. 

  • To supply with a mess. 

  • To belong to a mess. 

  • To make soiled by defecating. 

  • To take meals with a mess. 

  • To throw into disorder or to ruin. 

  • To interfere. 

How often have the words eristic and mess occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )