Consideracioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Careful thought or deliberation over a matter ; regard or respect shown toward another person ; a fact or circumstance that must be weighed in judging something
2. Mental attention paid to a problem before deciding ; esteem or heed given to someone's feelings or rights ; a factor to be taken into account when judging a situation
3. Attentive reflection on a question before acting ; the respect or regard one owes to others ; a circumstance that bears upon a decision or judgment

Etymology: Middle English "consideracioun" is the form that Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries used for what we now write as "consideration," and it arrived in English by way of Old French "consideration" from Latin "consideratio." The Latin noun came from "considerare," a verb that originally belonged to the language of stargazing and augury. Its core image is of looking at the stars and taking their measure, so the Latin sense of "considerare" was about examining something carefully, the way a diviner might study the heavens before reaching a judgment. That physical sense of careful looking survives in the modern word's meanings. To consider something once meant to observe it closely with the eyes, and the move from visual inspection to mental weighing was a short step. The Middle English form kept the older Latin-influenced spelling and pronunciation, which is why it looks so different from today's "consideration" while still signalling the same root.