ruminate

English

WOTD – 21 November 2006

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹumɪneɪt/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Verb

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.

2. (intransitive) To meditate or reflect.

   I didn't answer right away because I needed to ruminate first.

   • 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.

Conjugation

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

• See also Thesaurus:ponder
• Or Thesaurus:think

Derived terms

• ruminator

Related terms

• rumen
• ruminant
• rumination
• ruminatory

Translations

to chew cud

• Arabic: اجْتَرَّ (ijtarra)

  Moroccan Arabic: جر (jarr)

• Armenian: որոճալ (hy) (oročal)
• Aromanian: aroamig
• Assamese: পাগুলা (pagula)
• Bulgarian: преживям, предъвквам (preživjam, predǎvkvam), преживям (bg) (preživjam)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 反芻／反刍 (faan² co¹)

  Hakka: 倒草 (to-chó)

  Hokkien: 翻草 (huan-chháu)

  Mandarin: 反芻／反刍 (zh) (fǎnchú)

• Czech: přežvykovat
• Danish: drøvtygge, tygge drøv
• Dutch: herkauwen (nl)
• Faroese: jótra
• Finnish: märehtiä (fi)
• French: ruminer (fr)
• German: wiederkäuen (de)

  Alemannic German: beibe

• Greek: μηρυκάζω (el) (mirykázo)
• Hungarian: kérődzik (hu)
• Icelandic: jórtra
• Italian: ruminare (it)
• Latin: rūmīnō
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tygge drøv, drøvtygge

  Nynorsk: jorte, ørte

• Persian: ژاویدن (žâvidan)
• Portuguese: ruminar (pt), rumiar (pt)
• Quechua: kutipakuy
• Romanian: rumega (ro)
• Russian: жева́ть жва́чку (ževátʹ žváčku)
• Scottish Gaelic: cnuasaich, ath-chagainn
• Seko Tengah: prežúvať
• Slovak: prežúvať pf
• Spanish: rumiar (es)
• Swedish: idissla (sv)
• Tashelhit: ⴼⴰⵥⵥ (faẓẓ)
• Telugu: నెమరువేయు (te) (nemaruvēyu)
• Ukrainian: ремиґати (remygaty), ремигати (remyhaty)
• Walloon: roemyî (wa)
• Welsh: cilgnoi

to meditate

• Armenian: խորհրդածել (hy) (xorhrdacel)
• Bulgarian: размишлявам (bg) (razmišljavam)
• Czech: přemítat (cs), hloubat impf, rozebírat impf
• Finnish: märehtiä (fi)
• French: ruminer (fr)
• German: grübeln (de)
• Greek: σκέφτομαι (el) (skéftomai)
• Hungarian: rágódik (hu), mereng (hu), elmélkedik (hu)
• Maori: whakaraupeka
• Norwegian: tygge på
• Portuguese: ruminar (pt), remoer (pt)
• Romanian: rumega (ro) (o idee)
• Scottish Gaelic: cnuasaich
• Spanish: rumiar (es) (colloquial)
• Ukrainian: роздумувати (rozdumuvaty), розмірковувати (rozmirkovuvaty)

Adjective

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

• chew the cud

Further reading

• “ruminate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “ruminate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “ruminate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

ruminate

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

Etymology 2

Participle

ruminate f pl

1. feminine plural of ruminato

Anagrams

• minutare, numerati

Latin

Participle

rūmināte

1. vocative masculine singular of rūminātus