Infer



GRE Barron 考研

解释

GRE 红宝书

• v. 推断, 推定
• ［英］ v. 推断, 推定 ( reach an opinion from reasoning)
• ［类］ tacit : infer / encoded : decode ( 心照不宣的需要推断 / 加密的需要解密)
• ［记］ in ( 进入) +fer ( 带来) -> 带进 ( 意义) -> 推断

Webster Collegiate

verb (inferred; inferring)

• Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French inferer, from Latin inferre, literally, to carry or bring into, from in- + ferre to carry — more at bear
• Date: 1528
• transitive verb
  • 1. to derive as a conclusion from facts or premises <we see smoke and infer fire — L. A. White> — compare imply
  • 2. guess, surmise <your letter…allows me to infer that you are as well as ever — O. W. Holmes ?1935>
  • 3.
    • a. to involve as a normal outcome of thought
    • b. to point out ; indicate <this doth infer the zeal I had to see him — Shakespeare><another survey…infers that two-thirds of all present computer installations are not paying for themselves — H. R. Chellman>
  • 4. suggest, hint <are you inferring I'm incompetent?>
• intransitive verb
  • to draw inferences <men…have observed, inferred, and reasoned…to all kinds of results — John Dewey>
• ? inferable also inferrible adjective
• ? inferrer noun
• Synonyms:
  • infer, deduce, conclude, judge, gather mean to arrive at a mental conclusion. infer implies arriving at a conclusion by reasoning from evidence; if the evidence is slight, the term comes close to surmise <from that remark, I inferred that they knew each other>. deduce often adds to infer the special implication of drawing a particular inference from a generalization<denied we could deduce anything important from human mortality>. conclude implies arriving at a necessary inference at the end of a chain of reasoning<concluded that only the accused could be guilty>. judge stresses a weighing of the evidence on which a conclusion is based<judge people by their actions>. gather suggests an intuitive forming of a conclusion from implications<gathered their desire to be alone without a word>.
• Usage:
  • Sir Thomas More is the first writer known to have used both infer and imply in their approved senses (1528). He is also the first to have used infer in a sense close in meaning to imply (1533). Both of these uses of infer coexisted without comment until some time around the end of World War I. Since then, senses 3 and 4 of infer have been frequently condemned as an undesirable blurring of a useful distinction. The actual blurring has been done by the commentators. Sense 3, descended from More's use of 1533, does not occur with a personal subject. When objections arose, they were to a use with a personal subject (now sense 4). Since dictionaries did not recognize this use specifically, the objectors assumed that sense 3 was the one they found illogical, even though it had been in respectable use for four centuries. The actual usage condemned was a spoken one never used in logical discourse. At present sense 4 is found in print chiefly in

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