Deem: 1: To
come to think or judge: consider 2: To have an opinion : believe
In the Middle Ages, demen was a fateful word.
Closely related to doom, this precursor of deem meant "to act as a
judge" or "to sentence, condemn, or decree." These meanings
passed to deem itself, but we haven't used deem to mean "to legally
condemn" since the early 17th century. Though deem is still frequently
used in contexts pertaining to the law, today it means "to judge"
only in a broader sense of "to decide (something specified) after inquiry
and deliberation," as in "the act was deemed unlawful" or
"the defendant is deemed to have agreed to the contract." Outside of
the law, deem usually means simply "to consider." Some usage
commentators consider deem pretentious, but its use is well established in both
literary and journalistic contexts.
Pundit: 1. A
learned person. 2. A person who offers commentary or judgments as an expert on
a certain topic. From Hindi pandit, from Sanskrit pandita (learned).