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ruminate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 21 November 2006

Etymology

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1533, "to turn over in the mind," also "to chew cud" (1547), from Latin rūminātus, perfect active participle of rūminārī (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”), from rūmen (“the throat, gullet”), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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ruminate (third-person singular simple present ruminates, present participle ruminating, simple past and past participle ruminated)

  1. (intransitive) To chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.
    A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.
    • 1861, James W[addell] Alexander, “Remarks on the Studies and Discipline of the Preacher”, in S. D. A[lexander], editor, Thoughts on Preaching: Being Contributions to Homiletics, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner, […], →OCLC, page 181:
      There is surely some point beyond which the acquisition of other men’s thoughts must not be carried. This we say for the sake of those helluones librorum, who read forever and without stint; browsing as diligently as oxen in the green herbage of rich meads, but, unlike these, never lying down to ruminate. Life is too short, Art is too long, for a human mind to make perpetual accretion of book-learning, without halt. Sufflaminandum est.
  2. (intransitive) To meditate or reflect.
    I didn't answer right away because I needed to ruminate first.
    • 1744, James Carson, Jemmy Carson’s collections: being a revival of his own labours and lucubrations, for thirty years past; with pieces upon different subjects, by several hands, Dublin:
      Yet do thou cherish thy Partner, whilst her innocent Eyes are gazing on the Green Garment, that covereth the Surface of her Illapidable Virginity, ruminating upon the Departure of her nearest and dearest Friend [...] In that Day, thee wilt see with the Eye of Flesh; but if thee pursues it farther, to know whether she be Lapidable, or not, thee art certainly a Tyrant: For the Hammer of thy Loins, will at length beat down the Fortress of her Porto Bello; and the Pillars of her Tabernace will be spread abroad, until thee hast plundered the City, and taken the Precious Stones away.
    • 1848, Emanuel Swedenborg, The Philosophy of the Infinite; Outlines on a philosophical argument on the Infinite:
      In the present case, therefore, it now comes closer and closer, in thought, to the first finite; but before taking hold of it, and determining to explore it, the mind proposes, and ruminates, certain middle questions, touching the actual existence of a nexus, and the possibility there is, of discovering the nature, and quality of the nexus, which subsists between the cause, and the causate, or between the infinite, and the first finite.
    • 1912, Tickner Edwardes, Neighbourhood: A Year's Life in and about an English Village, page 135:
      All its sweetness, its wild purity, its slow, sorrowful strength, and its sudden overtripping, overmastering joy , drifted out upon the sunshine of the meadow, the varied phrases coming turn and turn about with long intervening silences, as though the singer ruminated on all the beauty before her, and unconsciously sang her thoughts aloud.
    • 2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 59:
      Meanwhile, the MoT had itself also been ruminating on options for the northern half of the route.
  3. (transitive) To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.
    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
      What I know / Is ruminated, plotted, and set down.
    • 1697, Virgil, “Cinyras and Myrrha”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
      Mad with desire, she ruminates her sin.
    • 1801, Maria Edgeworth, “Belinda”, in Tales and Novels, volume 6, New York: Harper & Brothers, published 1835, page 65:
      "Good-by, my dear Belinda; I leave you to ruminate sweet and bitter thoughts; to think of the last speech and confession of Lady Delacour, or, what will interest you much more, the first speech and confession of—Clarence Harvey."

Conjugation

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Conjugation of ruminate
infinitive (to) ruminate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular ruminate ruminated
2nd-person singular ruminate, ruminatest† ruminated, ruminatedst†
3rd-person singular ruminates, ruminateth† ruminated
plural ruminate
subjunctive ruminate ruminated
imperative ruminate —
participles ruminating ruminated

† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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ruminate (not comparable)

  1. (botany) Having a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.
    a ruminate endosperm

See also

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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ruminate

  1. inflection of ruminare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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ruminate f pl

  1. feminine plural of ruminato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Participle

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rūmināte

  1. vocative masculine singular of rūminātus
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