excogitate

ex•cog•i•tate (eks-KOJ-i-teyt)  v tr

Definition:
1. to devise, invent, or contrive
2. to think out in detail
3. to study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully

excogitated past participle; excogitated past tense; excogitating present participle; excogitates 3rd person singular present; excogitation, excogitator noun; excogitable, excogitative adjective

Origin:
circa 1530; from Latin excogitatus, past participle of excogitare "to devise, invent, think out", from ex- + cogitare "to think", apparently from co-agitare, from com- "together" + agitare, here in a sense of "to turn over in the mind," lit. "to put in constant motion, drive, impel," frequentative of agere "to move, drive"

Related:
Synonyms: conceive, consider, contemplate, contrive, deliberate, derive, develop, devise, educe, invent, perpend, ponder, ruminate, study
Related Words: cogitate

Sentence Examples:
• The Father Brown of these stories—moon-faced little man—is a peculiar creation. No other author would have taken the trouble to excogitate him, and then treat him so badly. - G. K. Chesterton, A Critical Study, Julius West

• His income, as collector of rents and manager of estates large or small, totalled about a pound a week. But, he walked forth in the town, smiled, joked, spoke vaguely, and said, "Do you?" to such a tune that his income might have been guessed to be anything from ten pounds a week to ten thousand a year. And he had four days a week in which to excogitate new methods of creating a fortune. - The Card, Arnold Bennett

• To make only passing mention of less spiritual amusements, with which he could not wholly dispense--he spent most of his time in writing a polemic against the slanderer Voltaire, hoping that the publication of this document would serve, upon his return to Venice, to give him unchallenged position and prestige in the eyes of all well-disposed citizens. One morning he went out for a walk beyond the town limits to excogitate the final touches for some sentences that were to annihilate the infidel Frenchman. - Casanova's Homecoming, Arthur Schnitzler

Sources: Free Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

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