konjekti in Esperanto: to conjecture, to surmise (verb)

Translation

to conjecture, to surmise

Word origin

From Latin coniectare, to throw together, from com- (together) and iacere (to throw). A conjecture is evidence thrown into one heap to see what shape it makes.

Origin: Latin
Root: coniectare
English cognates: conjecture, project, inject

Examples

, .

I am only conjecturing, because I do not know.

, .

We can only guess at what he is thinking.

.

She surmised the truth from his eyes.

The obvious reading is wrong. is not kon- plus jekti: Esperanto has no kon- prefix, and there is no root jekt- anywhere in the dictionary. The similar-looking (to know a person) is a different root that happens to start with the same three letters. What you have here is one borrowed root, konjekt-, with the ordinary infinitive -i on the end.

The Latin behind it does divide, and it is worth knowing because it explains the English family. Coniectare is com- (together) plus iacere (to throw), so a conjecture is a set of scraps thrown into one pile to see what pattern emerges. The same iacere gives project, inject, eject and reject - all of them throwings, in different directions. None of that helps you build Esperanto words, but it does make the word memorable, and it is the honest account.

Three near neighbours, kept apart:

Verb	What it does
	to reason towards an answer from thin evidence
	to suppose, to take something as given for the sake of argument
	to guess, and usually to guess right - to hit on it

implies a hit; implies a method and no guarantee. That is why a detective and a child playing a guessing game .

Related words

supozi

to suppose, to assume

diveni

to guess, to work out

pensi

to think

dubi

to doubt

opinii

to think, to be of the opinion, to reckon

Where this fits

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