Word of the Day

: May 19, 2009

posture

verb PAHSS-cher

What It Means

1 : to strike a pose for effect

2 : to assume an artificial or pretended attitude : attitudinize

posture in Context

Posturing as pro-worker, he won the support of the trade unions, only to cave in to big business almost the minute he got elected.

Did You Know?

Can you guess which of the following come from the same Latin ancestor as "posture"?

A. positive B. impose C. posit D. expose E. oppose F. component G. dispose H. position I. postpone

We won't put off the answer to our quiz : they all do. The Latin verb "ponere," meaning "to put" or "to place," is the ancestor of numerous English terms, including "posture" and our nine quiz words. The past participle of "ponere" -- "positus" -- gave Latin the noun "positura" (same meaning as the English noun "posture"). That noun passed through Italian and Middle French and was finally adopted by English speakers as "posture" around 1586. The verb "posture" followed later from the noun, finding its place in English around 1645.