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Am I just confused?

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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted


But is it also an adjective, as the OED supposes?

The COCA has the various following usages:

objected to chiropractic medicine because
have received chiropractic treatment
chiropractic consultation


Thus, chiropractic is both a noun and an adjective.

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I'm not so sure. Actually, "podiatry consultation" gets about as many Google hits as "podiatric consultation". Also note that "acupuncture treatment" is much more common than "acupunctural treatment". –  Jason Orendorff Mar 29 '11 at 18:07
It's also weird that "more chiropractic than" and "fairly chiropractic" get hits where the writer uses quotes (more "chiropractic" than), apparently indicating they know it's not the way the word is normally used. –  Jason Orendorff Mar 29 '11 at 18:11
@JasonOrendorf: The semi-interchangeable use of adjectives and noun-adjectives always fascinates me. How do you think people choose between the two? Somehow I feel that nouns sound more modern, more informal—not not always, and not with every word. –  Cerberus May 21 '12 at 15:03
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Chiropracty appears to an acceptable alternative and, according to Google, sees some use. –  coleopterist Mar 15 '13 at 5:00
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-1 for utter nonsense. Chiropractic is used as a noun, and listed as such in dictionaries. Chiropractory is neither. Oh, and may I ask you if you also refer to medics as medories, to alcoholics as alcoholories, to classics as classories, to music as musory, and to logic as logory? –  RegDwigнt May 21 '12 at 14:50
One does wonder why chiropraxis (or chiropractice) never caught on...Then we've got logic as a noun and logical as the adjective when you'd think that logos (noun) and logic (adjective) would be the more appropriate pair...and finally politicS and economicS when a language like French uses the singular 'la politique/economique'...go figure. –  Merk Oct 18 '12 at 5:03
@RegDwighт You might be interested in my answer to this question, q.v. –  John M. Landsberg Mar 15 '13 at 4:44
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protected by RegDwigнt May 21 '12 at 14:56


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