sayings.

[leigh47]

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.

[jno]

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.

[woofas]

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!

[Tom Braider]

It's called the fallacy of the undistributed middle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_un distributed_middle

[jno]

syllogisms generally contain three statements rather than two

[dundurn]

As in:

1 All women are intelligent

2 Some women are ABers

3 Some ABers are intelligent

[leigh47]

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.