1. To think about a situation before jumping into it: Prior to going on their trip the following week, the Curtis family had been premeditating about what they needed to take with them.
2. To plan, to arrange, or to plot an illegal act in advance: Henry was convicted of having premeditated the robbery long before he actually committed the crime.
3. Etymology: possibly from Latin praemediatus, "deliberate, composed or planned beforehand" from prae-, "before" + meditari, "to consider, to think about". © ALL rights are reserved.

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Regarding that which is considered beforehand and appears mostly in criminal-law contexts: Because the term premeditated so often precedes a bad legal act of some kind, as in a premeditated murder, the word has taken on very negative connotations.