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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--syllogistic This week's theme: words derived from Indo-European roots. syllogistic (sil-uh-JIS-tik) adjective 1. Of or relating to syllogism (a form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion). 2. Subtle or specious. noun 1. Deductive reasoning. 2. A subtle or specious piece of reasoning. [Via Middle English, French, and Latin from Greek syllogizesthai (to syllogize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg- (to collect, speak) that is also the source of other words such as lexicon, lesson, lecture, legible, legal, and select.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "To suggest that all this means, ipso facto, the media are politically biased in their news coverage is syllogistic reasoning at its worst." David Shaw; The More Pernicious Bias is Less Substance, More Fluff; Los Angeles Times; Jan 19, 2003. X-Bonus I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there; I went to the temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys, but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Kaaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers, but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart, and it was there where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was nowhere else to be found. -Jalaluddin Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)

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