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categorical: msg#00023

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Subject: categorical

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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
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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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