posture
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French posture, from Italian postura, from Latin positūra (“position, situation”). Doublet of positura.
Pronunciation
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Audio (UK): (file)
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Noun
posture (countable and uncountable, plural postures)
- The way a person holds and positions their body.
- c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- As if that whatsoever god who leads him / Were slily crept into his human powers, / And gave him graceful posture.
- a. 1689, Aphra Behn, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister
- […] walking in a most dejected posture, without a band, unbraced, his arms a-cross his open breast, and his eyes bent to the floor;
- 1895, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest […] , [Act I]:
- Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.
- A situation or condition.
- 1905, David Graham Phillips, The Deluge
- Even as I was reading these fables of my millions, there lay on the desk before me a statement of the exact posture of my affairs […]
- 1910, H.G. Wells, The History of Mr Polly
- Uncle Jim stopped amazed. His brain did not instantly rise to the new posture of things.
- 1905, David Graham Phillips, The Deluge
- One's attitude or the social or political position one takes towards an issue or another person.
- 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
- ...that is, their Forts, Garrisons, and Guns upon the Frontiers of their Kingdomes; and continuall Spyes upon their neighbours; which is a posture of War.
- 1912, G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men
- But it is not true, no sane person can call it true, that man as a whole in his general attitude towards the world, in his posture towards death or green fields, towards the weather or the baby, will be wise to cultivate dissatisfaction.
- 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
- (rare) The position of someone or something relative to another; position; situation.
- 1661, Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World
- The Moon beheld in any posture, in respect of the Sun and us, sheweth us its superficies ... always equally clear.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
- As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear. / In this posture they travelled many hours, till they came into a wide and well-beaten road […]
- 1661, Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World
Translations
position of body
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Verb
posture (third-person singular simple present postures, present participle posturing, simple past and past participle postured)
- (intransitive) to put one's body into a posture or series of postures, especially hoping that one will be noticed and admired
- If you're finished posturing in front of the mirror, can I use the bathroom now?
- (intransitive) to pretend to have an opinion or a conviction
- The politicians couldn't really care less about the issue: they're just posturing for the media.
- (transitive) To place in a particular position or attitude; to pose.
- to posture oneself; to posture a model
- 1655, James Howell, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:
- As pointed Diamonds being set, Cast greater lustre out of Jet, Those peeces we esteem most rare, Which in night shadows postur'd are.
Translations
to put one's body into a posture or series of postures
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Anagrams
- -pterous, Proteus, Puertos, Stroupe, Troupes, petrous, pourest, pouters, proteus, septuor, spouter, store up, troupes
French
Pronunciation
Noun
posture f (plural postures)
Descendants
Further reading
- “posture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Noun
posture f
Anagrams
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