Traditionally, it has been taken for granted that the most efficient way to organize people was through a system of legally or rationally accepted rules or procedures, with power residing in the appointed office-holder at different levels in the hierarchy (Weber, 1947, pp 329-41).

History, and its literary expression, narrative, were not scientific, and so did not deserve the attention that true sciences did. Only science could yield positive knowledge—hence the passion for positivism, and the origin of the term.

The boxer's fists rained down on his opponent in the last round.

nectar + -ferous → nectariferous (“producing nectar”)