ruminant

From Latin rūmināns, rūminantem, present participle of rūminārī (“to chew the cud, ruminate”), from rūmen (“throat, gullet, rumen (first stomach of a ruminant)”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹuːmɪnənt/

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ruminant (comparative more ruminant, superlative most ruminant)

1. Chewing cud.
2. Pondering; ruminative.
   • G. K. Chesterton

     “I wonder what a paradox is,” remarked the priest in a ruminant manner.

ruminant (plural ruminants)

1. Any artiodactyl ungulate mammal which chews cud in the suborder Ruminantia, such as a cow or deer.
   • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Prognosis”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 5:

     Flesh behind steel and glass is unprotected
     From enemies that whisper to the blood;
     The scratch forgotten is the scratch infected;
     The ruminant, reason, chews a poisoned cud.

• See also Thesaurus:ruminant

• ruminate

• IPA^(key): /ʁy.mi.nɑ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

ruminant (feminine ruminante, masculine plural ruminants, feminine plural ruminantes)

1. ruminant

ruminant m (plural ruminants)

1. ruminant

ruminant

1. present participle of ruminer

• “ruminant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

rūminant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of rūminō