eristic vs stray

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. 

stray

noun
  • One who is lost, literally or figuratively. 

  • An area of common land for use by domestic animals generally. 

  • Any domestic animal that has no enclosure nor proper place and company, but that instead wanders at large or is lost; an estray. 

  • An instance of atmospheric interference. 

  • An act of wandering off or going astray. 

verb
  • To wander from company or outside proper limits; to rove or roam at large; to go astray. 

  • To wander from the path of duty or rectitude; to err. 

  • To cause to stray; lead astray. 

  • To wander, as from a direct course; to deviate, or go out of the way. 

adj
  • Having gone astray; strayed; wandering 

  • In the wrong place; misplaced. 

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