ruminate
verb

— to think carefully and for a long period about something; to go over a matter in one's mind slowly and repeatedly.

— to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly; also: to chew the cud — said of cattle and other animals that bring food back up from the stomach to chew it again.

— to meditate or muse; to ponder; to reflect at length on a subject, often without arriving at a clear conclusion.

Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Oxford English Dictionary

—
WORD ORIGIN

The word ruminate goes back to the Latin ruminari — to chew the cud — from rumen, the first stomach of cattle. When a cow grazes, it swallows grass quickly, then later brings it back up and chews it again at leisure. This biological process — slow, unhurried, returning again and again to the same material — gave English its metaphor for a particular kind of thinking.

By the 16th century, ruminari had crossed into English both literally (describing cattle) and figuratively (describing humans who turn thoughts over and over in the mind). The figurative use was already common in classical Latin: Cicero and other Roman writers used ruminari to mean reflecting deeply on a question.

The noun form, rumination, arrived in English around the same period. The related adjective ruminant still describes animals — cattle, sheep, deer, camels — that chew the cud. The shared root, rumen, is also used in modern anatomy for the first chamber of a ruminant's stomach.

What is interesting about this word is that the biological and intellectual meanings have coexisted in English for over 400 years, each keeping the other honest. To ruminate is, literally and figuratively, to return to something half-digested and work on it until it yields something useful.

Helga & Paul Smith

—
SYNONYMS

ask oneself about, bat around, be in a brown study, be lost in thought, be miles away, bethink, brood over, chew on (over), cogitate, consider at length (carefully), contemplate, daydream, debate with oneself, deliberate, dwell on, envision, give it some thought, go over in one's mind, kick around, let it percolate (sink in), meditate on, mull (over), muse, ponder, puzzle over, rack one's brains, reconsider, reflect (on), replay in the mind, revolve in one's mind, roll around, RUMINATE, run it up a flagpole, sit with, size up, sleep on it, stare into space, stew on, study, sweat over, take stock, think deeply (it over), think over (through, twice), turn over in one's mind, weigh up, woolgather, wrestle with

—
SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Important decisions are well worth RUMINATING over for a day or two before being taken.”

—
PLEASE SUPPORT US

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga (my lovely wife and business partner) and our eagle-eyed daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren’t already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:
https://donorbox.org/owad-q4-2023-5

or

Bank transfer:
Paul Smith
IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40

Important: please state as ’Verwendungszweck’: “OWAD donation” and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD.

Thanks so much,

Paul
(OWAD Founder)