I found this question on Yahoo Answers and have had several people ask about the title of my blog.  I liked this and thought I'd post it as a sort of partial answer. I removed all names and any reference to the people who asked or answered leaving just the question and the best answer according to the person who asked the question. Enjoy...

Lee Murray

This picture has little or nothing to do with the post, I just like it...

Is there a difference between ruminating and cogitating?

Is one form of thinking more active than the other (is one more passive)? Thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The rumen is a part of the stomach in grass-eating animals such as cows and pigs. It's where fermenting of cud happens. "Ruminate" in an agricultural sense means "digest cud". I think it was Shakespeare who first used this as a metaphor for thinking over a really difficult decision - "chewing your cud" is also used in this way.

While 'ruminate' doesn't linguistically have anything to do with thinking, 'cogitate' does. It comes from the Latin 'cogere', meaning to think. So cogitating is just a fancy word for thinking. I don't think either is a 'passive' exercise, I think that both these words mean you're thinking very actively and carefully about something (but maybe 'ruminate' refers to reflecting deeply over a decision you might have to make, rather than just thinking about an intellectual or philosophical problem).