[a. F. argumentation, -acion (14th c. in Littré), ad. L. argūmentātiōn-em f. argūmentāri: see ARGUMENT v.]
1. The action or operation of inferring a conclusion from propositions premised; methodical employment or presentation of arguments; logical or formal reasoning.
1491. Caxton, Vitas Patr. (W. de W.), II. 293 b. That whiche he commaundeth not; thou sekest it by argumentacyon.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, 3. Logike … doth plainly and nakedly set foorth … the summe of things, by the way of argumentation.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., i. 2. [They] preclude any argumentation from the Revealed Word of God.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 156, ¶ 2. The evidence obscured by inaccurate argumentation.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxix. The eloquence and argumentation of the bar.
2. Interchange of argument, discussion, debate.
1538. Starkey, England, 149. We wyl not … consume the tyme in argumentatyon.
1676. Clarendon, Surv. Leviath., 286. But what argumentation can a man hold with him.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 429, ¶ 10. Conscious that he is too much given to Argumentation.
1836. H. Taylor, Statesm., xxii. 154. Inevitably drawn into protracted argumentation.
3. A sequence or chain of arguments, a process of reasoning; = ARGUMENT 4.
1548. Geste, Pr. Masse, 106. What a misfashioned argumentation is this.
1656. Cowley, Pind. Odes, 29, note. For when their argumentation is broken, they are forced to save themselves by flight, that is, by evasions.
1694. Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 265. Who have their syllogisms and argumentations not in mood and figure, but in their heels.
1877. S. Owen, in Wellesley Desp., Introd. 23. His solemn warnings … his ingenious argumentations.
