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leigh47 | 13:22 Mon 22nd Sep 2008 | Phrases & Sayings
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What is the correct word that describes a saying such as: A cow is an animal with 4 legs, therefore an animal with 4 legs is a cow.
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perhaps a 'non sequitur'? It's Latin for 'it doesn't follow' - so the second part of the sentence isn't a logical continuation of the first part.
I believe the word you are looking for is SYLLOGISM. I'm not that clever, it just happened to come up on QI the other night!
It's called the fallacy of the undistributed middle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_un distributed_middle
syllogisms generally contain three statements rather than two
As in:

1 All women are intelligent

2 Some women are ABers

3 Some ABers are intelligent
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Thank you all for your answers.
woofas. SYLLOGISM is the exact word I was trying to remember.
Tom Braider.Your answer about the Fallacy of the undistributed middle. and Wikipedia link is more of an answer than I expected and is EXCELANT.But will take some remembering. My mememory is not good these days.

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