Pronounced: POT-val-uhr, noun
Notes: I didn’t know the meaning of the word, but after seeing it, it made sense
Yesterday’s word
The word ratiocination is
- the process of exact thinking; reasoning
- a reasoned train of thought
First usage
Our word came into English in the early to mid-1500s
Background / Comments
Our word seems to fit the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Edgar Allen Poe used our word to describe his first book – The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The word actually appears in the sequel (The Mystery of Marie Roget). Our word traces back to the Latin root word ratio (reason; computation).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 