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categorical: msg#00023culture.language.word-of-the-day
**************************************************************** Do you march to the beat of a different drummer? Discover the origin of this term in our Dictionary of Allusions. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?allusion.htm&6 **************************************************************** The Word of the Day for March 24 is: categorical \kat-uh-GOR-ih-kul\ adjective *1 : absolute, unqualified 2 a : of, relating to, or constituting a category b : involving, according with, or considered with respect to specific categories Example sentence: Her denial was so categorical that we all believed she was speaking the truth. Did you know? The ancestor of "categorical" and "category" has been important in logic and philosophy since the days of Aristotle. Both English words derive from Greek "kategoria," which Aristotle used to name the 10 fundamental classes (also called "predications" or "assertions") of terms, things, or ideas into which he felt human knowledge could be organized. Ironically, although those categories and things categorical are supposed to be absolute and fundamental, philosophers have long argued about the number and type of categories that exist and their role in understanding the world. High-level philosophical disputes aside, the word "categorical" continues to refer to an absolute assertion, one that involves no conditions or hypotheses (for example, the statement "all humans are mortal"). *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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