A caller from Deer River, Minnesota, has lots of experience raising ruminants and wonders if the word ruminate, as in “to ponder or muse about something” stems from the image of such an animal chewing regurgitated cud. Indeed it does. In classical Latin, the word ruminare could mean either “to chew cud” or “to turn over in one’s mind.” Similarly, the English verb to browse originally referred to the action of an animal feeding on the buds and leaves of trees and bushes. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Origin of Ruminate”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Kirby Schmidt calling. I am calling from Deer River, Minnesota.
Well, welcome to the show.
What’s going on, Kirby?
Well, I am a high school agriculture science and FFA advisor in Deer River.
Nice.
And in my topic of agriculture and myself growing up on a farm, one specific word that’s always come up is the word ruminate.
And a ruminant is specifically an animal that has a four-chambered stomach like deer, cattle, sheep, goats, and they chew on a cut.
And when I’m working with my students in class, instead of saying, hey, I want you guys to think about this one for a while, I instead say, I want you to ruminate on this.
Or I’ve been in conversations with people and they’ve asked me something. I said, can I ruminate on that one for a little bit?
And I’m just curious if there’s anyone else out there that uses ruminate like this or if it’s a word that’s just specific to the ag industry.
So, yeah, that’s the word I’m kind of curious about.
So when you say that you’re going to ruminate, you don’t mean you’re going to bring up breakfast and re-chew it?
No, although sometimes I kind of feel like I want to.
But no, it’s just like an animal spits up its food.
I myself, it’s like I need to eat like I’m such a deep thinker.
And I’ve had some people tell me like, are you OK? Because you look really concerned about something.
I’m like, no, I’m just really like mulling over this.
Like I’m ruminating on my ideas.
And so I’ve got to think about it and then I’ll spit up my ideas later.
OK, you’re a very literal guy.
But, you know, the truth is that plenty of people outside the agricultural world use the word ruminate to mean to think about something.
I mean, maybe they don’t have quite that sharp an image or picturesque an image as you have.
Actually, in English, it seems that ruminate has meant to think over for hundreds of years.
In fact, the citations that we have for it come before citations for ruminate used for chewing in animals.
And I think that probably the reason is that if you go all the way back to the Latin ruminatio, already in ancient Rome, the term is referring to either chewing cud literally or turning something over in your mind again and again.
Interesting.
Yeah, right?
So even before English, it had the two meanings well before.
Oh, wow.
Centuries.
That’s so cool.
The truth is cattle do look thoughtful when they’re chewing their cud, right? They’re staring off in the distance like they’re considering their prospects.
That’s how I look when I eat.
You know, it’s interesting.
I think a word that’s maybe gone a little bit farther from its roots that’s sort of got the same sense is the word browse.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, in English, originally we talked about browse, meaning a cow going from bush to bush eating something or an animal going from bush to bush.
But then that’s become more abstract, and we don’t really associate those two together at all now.
Shakespeare used it that way, talking about sheep browsing the ivy.
But we don’t talk about browsing.
So the figurative use became the new literal use.
That’s what I’m trying to say.
And the old literal use fell away.
Exactly.
That’s what I’m trying to say.
Cattle browsing the fields.
Yeah, because we define, like we’ve got browsers and grazers, and goats are primarily a browser because they’re going along to trees and they’re biting off branches and they’ll eat more sticky, more deciduous, more woody plants versus a grazer.
Like cattle and sheep are going to be more particular to eating grasses themselves and are going to be chomping on and ruminating on shrubs and bushes.
Yes, and isn’t that crazy?
See, now we have internet browsers, and we don’t even think about animals going bush to bush.
So ruminate on that, Kirby.
I definitely will.
Thank you so much for your call.
Thank you, Kirby.
Yeah, have a great day.
Okay, thanks. Bye-bye.
Bye.
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