Coniectura

Coniectura is a Latin noun meaning conjecture, inference, or guess. It denotes a conclusion drawn from signs, data, or partial evidence rather than from demonstration, and it can refer to both rhetorical reasoning and early empirical inference.

Origin and form: Coniectūra is from Latin coniectūra “an act of throwing together,” from conicere “to throw together, assemble.” The -tūra suffix forms abstract nouns. The term is the ancestor of the English word conjecture and related terms in Romance languages.

Classical and medieval use: In classical and late Latin, coniectura signified reasoning from signs to a probable conclusion, often used in rhetoric, philosophy, and natural philosophy to describe tentative explanations or hypotheses. It could express both cautious inference and speculative assertion, depending on context.

Modern usage and related concepts: In English, conjecture retains this sense of an inferred conclusion. In mathematics and logic, a conjecture is a proposition believed true but not yet proven. Coniectura thus marks both the act of forming an inference and a degree of uncertainty, standing in contrast to demonstratio (proof). In contemporary scholarship, the term is typically rendered as conjecture or conjectural reasoning, and is distinguished from hypothesis as a starting assumption or from proof as established truth.