contemplate

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

Attested since the 1590s; borrowed from Latin contemplātus, from contemplari (“observe, survey”).

PronunciationEdit

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.təmˌpleɪt/
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.təmˌpleɪt/
Audio (US)
(file)
Hyphenation: con‧tem‧plate

VerbEdit

contemplate (third-person singular simple present contemplates, present participle contemplating, simple past and past participle contemplated)

To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder, or consider.
- 1671, John Milton, “Book the First”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398:
  To love, at least contemplate and admire, / What I see excellent.
- 1818, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth, London: John Murray, […], OCLC 1015248873, canto IV, stanza CLVIII:
  We thus dilate / Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate.
To consider as a possibility.
- 1793 February 18, Alexander Hamilton, Loans, speech given to the United States House of Representatives:
  There remain some particulars to complete the information contemplated by those resolutions.
- 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law
  If a treaty contains any stipulations which contemplate a state of future war.
- 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
  Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
I contemplated doing the project myself, but it would have taken too long.