--Part of Peirce's Carnegie Application.

Hence, the word by the vulgar and eventually by the refined, though not by logicians, was spelled with a single s, premise. It was not until much later that logicians, to give themselves a mundane air, took up this false spelling.)"

So when the logical word came in (the word premises having presumably already been pronounced with its first s hard), the vulgar thought it somewhat mysterious and doubtless the same mysterious thing which the lawyers spoke of in the plural.

It thus passed into English in its plural form; and this plural form masked its adjectival nature, so that the unlearned did not know what it meant. Probably not one uneducated man today who talks glibly about the premises could tell what the word premises means.

But when it became more common so as to be written by persons of insufficient learning, it was confused with another word, the legal word, generally used in the plural, premises. This word is simply a French legal adjective meaning "aforesaid," and commonly used in the phrase "les choses promises."

The word praemissa is a substantive meaning a premiss, came into Latin very late and was never very common. Consequently, the English word was for a long time little used; but when it was used, it was always spelled premiss.

Epistemic nominalisation.

I suppose then that the legitimacy of these studies is largely in the head too? To the extent they are underwritten by causal relations. (Half kidding.)

Ya I think I would recommend it. I remember it being a historical overview plus some contemporary discussion. I don't remember it beating you over the head with pragmatism, but I am sure it would resonate with pragmatist ideas. (I read it in 2014, so this may be off.)

(Think “faculty”, which has the same root).

I have! (Did my undergraduate thesis on Peirce and scepticism.)

Great colours.

*Lawrence (oops)

Thorndike (thorndyke?) has a great book on experiment and magic, and Lawerence Principe has a great history of alchemy. Both might help
keep a scratching that itch.

Seems like “intuition” comes from something like “watching inside” in + tueri, similar root to “tutor”, watcher.

Thank you!