Heuristics and the OED

 

In my Greek class yesterday we discussed accentuation and breathings and our tutor Vicki Roupa mentioned the verb ἑυρίσκω, I discover or find out, as an example of a rough breathing over a diphthong. The English word heuristics is derived from it, she said. Heuristics is a word whose meaning I have never fully understood. I know that it means something to do with finding out or discovery, like its Greek root, but no more than that, so I went to the Online Oxford English Dictionary, available through my university login, but also through my public library.
Here I found a definition. In its singular form, as an adjective, meaning serving to find out or discover or as a noun, a heuristic process or method for attempting the solution of a problem; a rule or item of information used in such a process. In the plural, it means the study and use of heuristic techniques in data processing The citations given are interesting, including Coleridge, Einstein, McLuhan and Chomsky.
There was also an article on the new 3rd edition of the OED in last Saturday’s Financial Times magazine. The author, Richard Tomkins, mention that the cost of an individual online subsrciption is £195. But it should not be necessary for anyone in England to subscribe, if they are a member of their public library, for the OED,  the Dictionary of National Biography and a number of other electronic reference works through the Reference Online service . I can't see any information on the take-up of this programme on the MLA website. I have e-mailed them to ask if figures are available.