# ergonic
## English
### Etymology

From ergon +‎ -ic.

### Adjective

ergonic (comparative more ergonic, superlative most ergonic)
* Pertaining to energy, especially the expenditure or transfer of energy.
** 1913, James Riddick Partington, A Text-book of Thermodynamics, page 531: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 order, and this corresponds with the ergonic distribution, where a fraction only of the atoms are vibrating with definite energies.
** 1990, Hendrik Keyzer, George M. Eckert, Felix Gutmann, Electropharmacology, page 202:The intracellular surfaces of the electron-transferring proteins should, like the extracellular surfaces, develop ionic and ergonic products of electrode reactions.
** 2013, Aline Auroux, Calorimetry and Thermal Methods in Catalysis, page 35:In the right-hand side of the formula, the enthalpic and the ergonic contribution to the standard entropy of adsorption are recognized.
** 2014, E. O. Attinger, “Structure and Function of the Peripheral Circulation”, in J. H. U. Brown, Donald S. Gann, editor, Engineering Principles in Physiology: Volume 2, page 3:Figure 1 indicates some of the multiple and close interrelations between the ergonic (energy-related ) and the cybernetic (information-related) components (1) .
** 2024, Adrian W. Froehlich, The Embodiment of Philosophy, page 334:Corresponds to the ergonic part of a circuit, i.e. the part that does not include any open subcircuits.
* Pertaining to work or productive activity.
** 2013, Sara Brill, Plato on the Limits of Human Life, page 243:Psychic time is pathic and ergonic time, it is the working through of passion and action.
** 2017, John Hope Mason, The Value of Creativity: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.
** 2019, Tom F. Driver, Liberating Rites:Turner was well aware that the liminoid arts and entertainments of our society have their "ergonic" (workful) aspects, and he took their transformative power quite seriously. He was equally cognizant of the "ludic" (playful) component in the rituals of archaic societies.
* Involving functional constraints; non-random due to functional considerations.
** 1994, Stephen David Ross, Locality and Practical Judgment: Charity and Sacrifice, page 36: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.
** 2010, Martin Johanson, Heléne Lundberg, Network Strategies for Regional Growth, page 41: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.
** 2021, Jason Ananda Josephson Storm, Metamodernism: The Future of Theory, page 124:While types of spears may have been produced by mimetic processes, the parallel convergence on making pointy sticks is an example not of classificatory or mimetic processes, but rather of ergonic convergence.
* (linguistics, dated) Pertaining to the functional categories of linguistic elements; syntactic.
** 1917, Harold E. Palmer, The Scientific Study & Teaching of Languages, page 270: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.
** 1938, Douglas Martyn Beach, The Phonetics of the Hottentot Language, page 25:"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, number, and case of nouns […]
** 1954 ·, C. R. Sankaran, Some Problems in Kannada Linguistics, page 36:Ergonic analysis is the reduction by means of symbols and formulae, complete sentences to their minimal parts.

#### Derived terms

* endoergonic