cogitation

Meanings

1. The process of cogitating; contemplation, deliberation, reflection, meditation.
2. A carefully considered thought, idea, notion.

Etymology

Latinism, likely a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin cogitatio, cogitationis, possibly influenced by or displacing an earlier doublet of cogitacion inherited from Middle English cogitacioun, from an Old French cogitaciun, from Vulgar Latin cōgitātiō, cōgitātiōnem; compare Middle French cogitatiun, French cogitation. All ultimately from verbal construction cōgitātus + -iō, from the perfect passive participle of Latin cōgitō (“to turn over in the mind; think, consider, ponder, meditate”), frequentative verb from con- (“together, with”) + agitō (“to put in constant motion, drive at something; devise, plot, contrive”), root from Proto-Italic *agō (“to drive, impel”) from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ-.