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ruminate

ru·mi·nate

UK/ˈɹuːmɪnət/ US/ˈɹumənət/ uncommon

verb

1.

chew the cuds

  • “cows ruminate”
2.

reflect deeply on a subject

  • “I mulled over the events of the afternoon”
  • “philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years”
  • “The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate”
Synonyms

Origin

First attested in 1533; borrowed from Latin rūminātus, perfect active participle of rūminor (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from rūmen (“the throat, gullet”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix), itself of uncertain origin.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.