Ergo

Part of speech: adverb

Pronunciation: /ˈɛɚɡoʊ/

Definitions

1. Used to indicate a logical conclusion or result from what has been previously stated
2. Expresses that something follows as a direct consequence of earlier information
3. Serves to connect a cause with its outcome in reasoning or argumentation

Etymology: Most English speakers meet "ergo" in logic class, but in Latin it was an ordinary word meaning "therefore" or "hence," built from the same roots that gave English words like "ergonomic" a few centuries later. It entered Middle English from Latin "ergō," and it has stayed in the language mainly as a formal marker of conclusion, the word you reach for when a deduction needs to be signposted. The word's modern life has a surprising second chapter. Its best-known current use is as a clipping of "ergonomic," meaning a shortened form of that longer term, which was itself coined from Greek roots meaning "work" and "law" or "rule." So the same short syllable now names both the old logician's conclusion and a term about designing things to suit human bodies.

Synonyms: therefore, thus