surmission

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From surmise +‎ -sion, likely from the assumption that surmise cannot be used as a noun.

Noun[edit]

surmission (plural surmissions)

  1. (rare, nonce word) An act of surmising; a guess or conjecture.
    • 1901, Francina Scott, The Romance of a Trained Nurse, New York: Cooke & Fry, →OCLC, page 185:
      “I merely took a little stomach bitters for the stomach's sake only. I had a surmission you might think something wrong, and have been looking for you, to explain.”
    • 1992 October 13, dho...@cbrown.claremont.edu, “koine = new testament?”, in sci.classics[1] (Usenet):
      Of the additions roughly 50% are translations of Semitic language works (attributed as such either by surmission based on language or through discovery of lost originals).
    • 1996, Martin Booth, Adrift in the Oceans of Mercy, London: Simon & Schuster Ltd, →ISBN, page 169:
      If your surmission is correct, and the lights are low to encourage psychological warmth, then this still saves power by necessitating less heating.
    • 2000 July 1, ou812, “Lock and Load! (fwd)”, in or.general[2] (Usenet):
      No, that's just another one of your pull it out of your butt surmissions, you have no way of knowing what he did or did not do, and I refuse to come anywhere near a thought process that polluted.
    • 2003, Martin Booth, Islands of Silence, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 39:
      ‘A knowledge of, an appreciation of, history is purposeful,’ I defended myself. “The lesson of history instructs us in the path of the future.’ I sounded like one of my recent professors, pedantic but confident in my surmission.