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Is there a verb to the word science? Could you say sciencing (i.e. "in the Process of making/generating science")?

Of course there is the word research, which is both a verb and a noun. But in the noun form, "research" and "science" seem to differ a bit if you ask me.

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    @simchona: No, I don't. It just occurred to me.
    – bitmask
    Nov 29, 2011 at 5:56
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    Is this following the philosophy of "There is no noun that cannot be verbed?"
    – Gnawme
    Nov 29, 2011 at 6:32
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    @Gnawme: At least that seems to hold for the noun verb. Language is weird :)
    – bitmask
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:21
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    "Verbing weirds language" Calvin & Hobbes
    – Wudang
    Nov 29, 2011 at 9:26
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    "I'm sciencing as fast as I can science!" - en.wikiquote.org/wiki/…
    – Polynomial
    Dec 1, 2011 at 11:23

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It makes sense that there is no exact verb counterpart to the noun, since there are very many things you can do that involve science. Making a rocket and figuring out the chemical composition of something are both examples of science, but they are very different in terms of what kind of thing you are doing.

Some common ones might be experiment, study, invent, and investigate.

Or, playfully (read: don't put this in anything formal), I might do science.

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    Both examples you give can be called research as well, and "doing science on them" could be expressed as researching them. So your statement why it makes sense that there is no such verb seems at least a bit far fetched to me. Did I perhaps miss some finer point?
    – bitmask
    Nov 29, 2011 at 6:01
  • Making a rocket would not normally be considered research. (I'm talking about building one, not coming up with a brand new theory of rockets)
    – Jeremy
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:12
  • Oh, I see. Nevertheless, I still cannot relate to your argument. Anyway, doing science is probably the usual construction for this issue. But I like sciencing for its whimsicality. :)
    – bitmask
    Nov 29, 2011 at 7:18
  • @bitmask Also, you can research something without doing any science. You can research a painter, research a paper for English class, research a raid boss strategy for World of Warcraft, etc. If you made a Venn diagram for research and science, they'd definitely have quite a bit of overlap, but neither one is contained wholly within the other.
    – Phoenix
    Nov 29, 2011 at 10:52
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There is a verb scientize, meaning ‘to make scientific; to give (something) a scientific character, basis, or rationale; to organize on scientific principles’ (OED). Not sure I’d recommend it, though.

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