Ratiocinators

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of intellectual or analytical individual who engages in systematic reasoning and logical thought processes
2. Referring to those who employ critical thinking to arrive at conclusions and insights through deduction
3. Describing people who approach problems methodically, using reasoning to conceptualize and solve complex issues

Etymology: Its core is a Latin idea of reason as reckoning. "Ratio" originally meant calculation, account, or proportion before it came to mean the faculty of reasoning, and "ratiocinari" meant to work something out step by step, as one would tally a sum. The Latin suffix "-ator" marks the doer of an action, so the word names someone who carries out that careful reckoning. English formed the family from classical materials rather than inheriting it through everyday speech. That is why the verb "ratiocinate" and its relatives sound more formal than "reason" or "think." English "ratio," the mathematical comparison of two quantities, comes from the same Latin root, so the counting sense and the thinking sense have always been close relations.