ruminate means to chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.
ruminate is pronounced /ˈɹumɪneɪt/.
Why “ruminate” is a great word
To turn a thought over and over in the mind, much as a cow chews its cud. It derives from the Latin rūminātus, past participle of rūminārī (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”), from rūmen (“throat, gullet”), first attested in English in 1533. Unlike ponder, which suggests a deliberate weighing of a matter, or consider, which implies an active examination of options, to ruminate is to be caught in a more passive, circular, and often involuntary process. It is the taste of the same old grievance on the tongue at three in the morning, the slow mastication of a long-past slight, the mental pacing of a worn and familiar track—the mind’s own digestive system, working on what it cannot, or will not, excrete.
Etymology
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.
verb
- To chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.e.g.“A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.”
- To meditate or reflect.e.g.“I didn't answer right away because I needed to ruminate first.”
- To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.e.g.“What I know / Is ruminated, plotted, and set down.”
adj
- Having a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.e.g.“a ruminate endosperm”
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