Cŏn'tem-plāte or Con-tĕm'plāte1, v. t.
(117) (Synop., § 130), v. t. [imp. & p. p. CONTEMPLATED; p. pr. & vb. n. CONTEMPLATING.] [Lat. contemplatus, p. p. of contemplari, to look around carefully on all sides, to consider, from con and templum, a space for observation marked out by the augur with his staff, contracted from tempulum, as a diminutive of tempus, a piece or portion cut off; Fr. contempler, Pr., Sp., & Pg. contemplar, It. contemplare.]
Sense 1. To look at on all sides or in all bearings; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study.
To love, at least contemplate and admire, What I see excellent. Milton.
Sense 2. To consider or have in view, as contingent or probable; to look forward to; to presuppose; to propose.
The information contemplated by those resolutions. A. Hamilton.
Although the orthœpists declare themselves to be in favor of pronouncing this word and others of similar formation (as alternate, compensate, consecrate, confiscate, extirpate, &c.) with the accent on the second syllable, it would better accord with analogy to place the accent on the first syllable; for these words do not come to us directly, as seems to be commonly supposed, from con'templor, alter'no, compen'so, &c.; but from their participles, con'templa'tus, alter'na'tus, com' pensa'tus, &c., in which the principal accent is on the last syllable but one, and a secondary accent on the first syllable. Now, it is a general rule of our language that, when a polysyllable is formed from the Latin by dropping a syllable, the principal accent of the English word coincides with the secondary accent of the Latin; as, for example, in parsimony, from par'simo'nia. It is, therefore, decidedly preferable to say con'template, al'ternate, com'pensate, &c., instead of contem'plate, alter'nate, compen'sate, &c. Nor, in most cases, does usage, though somewhat divided, forbid us to do so. In the United States, there is a large and increasing number of cultivated speakers who give the antepenultimate accentuation to these and other words of the same class, and the practice of most English scholars of the present day is the same. See § 117.
Synonyms—To study; ponder; muse; meditate on; dwell on; consider; intend; design; plan; purpose.—To CONTEMPLATE, MEDITATE, INTEND. We meditate a design when we are looking out or waiting for the means of its accomplishment; we contemplate it when the means are at hand, and our decision is nearly or quite made. To intend is stronger, implying that we have decided to act when an opportunity may offer. A general meditates an attack upon the enemy; he contemplates undertaking it at the earliest convenient season; and in the mean time conceals his intention with the utmost care.