Other forms: surmised, surmises, surmising
To surmise is to guess from slight evidence. I surmise that, one can only surmise, surmised as much.
It is a careful word: surmising admits that the evidence is thin, which is why it appears in reports where a conclusion cannot be claimed. As a noun it means the guess itself. Note that the French behind it meant to accuse, from a phrase meaning to put upon — which is what a surmise does to the facts.
1verbsurmiseTo guess from slight evidence.
“From his muddy boots, I surmised that he had walked across the fields.”
surmise is a guessing.
SURMise → the SUM of the little you have
You add up the small sum of what you have and guess the rest of it.
hooks ontosum
Old French surmis is the past participle of surmettre, to accuse — sur plus mettre, to put upon.
Old French
surmis
English, today
surmise
Built from
From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA