comprehender

From comprehend +‎ -er.

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

comprehender (plural comprehenders)

1. One who comprehends.
   • 2005, Margaret J. Snowling, Charles Hulme, The Science of Reading: A Handbook, page 232:

     Less-skilled comprehenders do not know when it is appropriate to draw inferences.

   • 1989, Hans-Wilhelm Dechert, Manfred Raupach, Interlingual Processes, page 138:

     This mental representation provides the comprehender with a general plan according to which he can organize, interrelate and memorize the incoming information.

   • 1908, Paul Deussen, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, page 169:

     There is no seer beside him, no hearer beside him, no comprehender beside him, no knower beside him.

• comprehensor (obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin comprehendo, comprehendere.

comprehender

1. to teach
2. to understand; to comprehend
   • Premier Volume des Exposées des Épistoles:

     Les ministres des juifz comprehenderent Jesus Christ

This verb conjugates as a first-group verb ending in -er. The forms that would normally end in *-d, *-ds, *-dt are modified to t, z, t. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (comprehender)

comprehender (first-person singular present comprehendo, first-person singular preterite comprehendi, past participle comprehendido)

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of compreender.
   • 1880, Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho, “A Cigana [Gypsy]”, in Contos e phantasias [Short stories and fantasies]‎, 2nd edition, Lisbon: Parceria Antonio Maria Pereira, published 1905, page 146:

     A Cigana, parecendo comprehender aquellas palavras, endireitou-se, e pousando as patas no collo da menina, beijou-lhe carinhosamente as mãos...

     The Gypsy, appearing to comprehend those words, straightened up, and, laying her paws on the girl’s lap, kissed her hands lovingly...

Borrowed from Latin comprehendere. See the inherited form comprender.

comprehender (first-person singular present comprehendo, first-person singular preterite comprehendí, past participle comprehendido)

1. Obsolete spelling of comprender.
   • c. 5th century, José Cayetano Díaz de Beyral, transl., La ciudad de Dios‎, translation of De Civitate Dei by Augustine of Hippo, published 1795, book XII, chapter XVIII:

     Sobre el otro punto que dicen, que ni la ciencia de Dios puede comprehender las cosas infinitas, les resta el atreverse á decir, sumergiéndose en este profundo abismo de impiedad, que no conoce Dios todos los números […]

     As for their other assertion, that God's knowledge cannot comprehend things infinite, it only remains for them to affirm, in order that they may sound the depths of their impiety, that God does not know all numbers

• “comprehender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10