ergonic

Adjective

ergonic (comparative more ergonic, superlative most ergonic)

1. Pertaining to energy, especially the expenditure or transfer of energy.
   • The vibrations cannot be of the kind postulated by Boltzmann, in which every atom possesses some kinetic energy (except at the absolute zero), and the kinetic energies are distributed according to the probability law expressing a state of elementary chaos; rather, there must be a certain amount of...1913, James Riddick Partington, A Text-book of Thermodynamics, page 531
   • The intracellular surfaces of the electron-transferring proteins should, like the extracellular surfaces, develop ionic and ergonic products of electrode reactions.1990, Hendrik Keyzer, George M. Eckert, Felix Gutmann, Electropharmacology, page 202
2. Pertaining to work or productive activity.
   • Psychic time is pathic and ergonic time, it is the working through of passion and action.2013, Sara Brill, Plato on the Limits of Human Life, page 243
   • The ergonic fallacy, by contrast, assumes that the work (ergon) embodies the character of its creator; the qualities present in the completed work are assumed to have been present in the originating agent.2017, John Hope Mason, The Value of Creativity
3. Involving functional constraints; non-random due to functional considerations.
   • Difference depends on heterogeneity. Moreover, heterogeneity is local: what is incommensurate in one perspectie may not be incommensurate in another. Determinateness and indeterminateness are functional, ergonic.1994, Stephen David Ross, Locality and Practical Judgment: Charity and Sacrifice, page 36
   • Another assumption is that the world is 'non-ergonic': there is no underlying stable structure to keep variation within certain limits, and the world changes in novel and unforeseeable ways.2010, Martin Johanson, Heléne Lundberg, Network Strategies for Regional Growth, page 41
4. (dated) Pertaining to the functional categories of linguistic elements; syntactic.
   • If, in making our ergonic combinations, oblivious of all except ergonic considerations, we happen to pronounce the foreign equivalent of I follow two trees, we shall at once be informed that it is a sentence not in use among the natives.1917, Harold E. Palmer, The Scientific Study & Teaching of Languages, page 270
   • "Ultimate minimal elements" which have rather a functional (ergonic) force than a strongly semantic force have to a large extent been joined to the stronger elements (“stems”) to form single words. Examples of some of the commonest of these ergonic elements are : ( a ) those indicating the gender...1938, Douglas Martyn Beach, The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language, page 25