intendiment means understanding; careful consideration, attention. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “intendiment” is a great word
INTENDIMENT — [Noun] The act or faculty of understanding, a deliberate consideration, or a settled purpose. From Medieval Latin intendimentum, from the Latin verb intendere (“to stretch toward, aim at, intend”). Unlike “intendment,” a later, specialized legal term for a statute’s precise purpose, or “interpretation,” the active process of construing meaning, “intendiment” is the interior state of comprehension itself. It is the archer’s fixed gaze on the bullseye, the unspoken reason behind a craftsman’s pause, or the silent calculation before a letter is sealed—the mind’s quiet stretch toward meaning before any act of expression.
Etymology
From Medieval Latin intendimentum.
noun
- Understanding; careful consideration, attention.“be nought hereat dismayd, / Till well ye wote by graue intendiment, / What woman, and wherefore doth me vpbrayd […].”
- Intention, objective.“The noble Mayd still standing all this vewd, / And merveild at his straunge intendiment.”