Prep School: Rumen + Body Goes

“Rumen” is the Latin term for the first, eponymous stomach compartment of ruminant animals – cattle, sheep, deer, goats, giraffes, camels, and llamas (although camels and llamas are controversial inclusions on this list, possessing merely 3 stomach chambers against the others’ 4). An etymology lesson from Merriam-Webster to think over – did you know that rumination is directly connected to bovine digestion?:

When you ruminate, you chew something over, either literally or figuratively. Literal rumination may seem a little gross to humans, but to cows, chewing your cud (partially digested food brought up from the stomach for another chew) is just a natural part of life. Figurative ruminating is much more palatable to humans; that kind of deep, meditative thought is often deemed quite a worthy activity. The verb ruminate has described metaphorical chewing over since the early 1500s and actual chewing since later that same century. Our English word comes from and shares the meanings of the Latin verb ruminari (“to chew the cud” or “muse upon”), which in turn comes from rumen, the Latin name for the first stomach compartment of ruminant animals (that is, creatures like cows that chew their cud).

Ruminant is synonymous with meditative, contemplative, and philosophical.