positus

Latin

Alternative forms

• postus

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpɔ.sɪ.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpɔː.s̬i.tus]

Etymology 1

Perfect passive participle of pōnō (“to place; to put”).

Participle

positus (feminine posita, neuter positum); first/second-declension participle

1. located; placed; situated; arranged
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 2.674:

     quā positus fuerīs in statiōne, manē

     In whichever station you have been placed, remain [there].
     (The poet invokes the protector of boundary stones, Terminus (god).)

2. ordained
3. put down; set down; set
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 1.207:

     iūra dabat populīs positō modo praetor arātrō

     The praetor, his plow only recently having been set aside, was giving justice to the peoples.

Declension

First/second-declension participle.

	singular				plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter		masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	positus	posita	positum		positī	positae	posita
genitive	positī	positae	positī		positōrum	positārum	positōrum
dative	positō	positae	positō		positīs
accusative	positum	positam	positum		positōs	positās	posita
ablative	positō	positā	positō		positīs
vocative	posite	posita	positum		positī	positae	posita

Descendants

• Italo-Dalmatian:
  • Italian: posto m, posta f (see there for further descendants)
  • Sicilian: postu m, ⇒ pusiteḍḍu
  • Venetan: posta f
    • → Serbo-Croatian: pošta / пошта
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: puost, puest
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: post m, posta f
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: posta f
    • Galician: posta f, posto m
    • Portuguese: posta f, posto m
  • Spanish: puesto m
• Borrowings:
  • → Catalan: pòsit m (learned)
  • → English: posit

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep

Proto-Indo-European *-o

Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó

Proto-Indo-European *h₂pó

Proto-Indo-European *teḱ-der.

Proto-Indo-European *tḱey-der.

Proto-Italic *sinō

Proto-Italic *pozinō

Old Latin *poznō

Latin pōnō

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Proto-Italic *-tus

Latin -tus

Latin positus

From pōnō + -tus (forming action nouns).

Noun

positus m (genitive positūs); fourth declension

1. a position

   Synonym: situs

   • 86 BCE – c. 35 BCE, Gaius Sallustius Crispus, Histories 2.1:

     Quom praedixero positum insulae

     After I will have notified about the position of the island

2. a situation, disposition, order, arrangement

Declension

Fourth-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	positus	positūs
genitive	positūs	posituum
dative	posituī	positibus
accusative	positum	positūs
ablative	positū	positibus
vocative	positus	positūs

Related terms

• positiō

References

• “positus, -a, -um”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “positus, -a, -um”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “positus, -ūs”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “positus, -ūs”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "positus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “positus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to feel superior to the affairs of life: res humanas infra se positas arbitrari
    
  • the motive, cause, is to be found in..: causa posita est in aliqua re
    
  • extraneous causes: causae extrinsecus allatae (opp. in ipsa re positae)
    
  • on this supposition, hypothesis: hoc posito
    
  • to scale the walls by means of ladders: positis scalis muros ascendere
    
  • (ambiguous) to be favourably situated: opportuno loco situm or positum esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to fail to see what lies before one: quod ante pedes est or positum est, non videre
    
  • (ambiguous) to depend upon a thing: positum, situm esse in aliqua re
    
  • (ambiguous) to be in a person's power: in manu, in potestate alicuius situm, positum esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to consider a thing beneath one's dignity: aliquid infra se ducere or infra se positum arbitrari
    
  • (ambiguous) it is a matter of conjecture, supposition: aliquid in coniectura positum est
    
  • (ambiguous) we start by presupposing that..: positum est a nobis primum (c. Acc. c. Inf.)
    
  • (ambiguous) to occupy a very high position in the state: in altissimo dignitatis gradu collocatum, locatum, positum esse
    
• Forcellini, Egidio; Furlanetto, Giuseppe (ed.); Corradini, Francesco (ed.); and Perin, Giuseppe (ed.) (1733-1965). Lexicon Totius Latinitatis. Bologna: Arnaldo Forni. Vol. III. p. 772.