posit

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin positus (“placed, situated”), also the stem posit-, the past participle of pōnō (“to place, put, lay down”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares the earlier English noun positum and verb position.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To put in position, to set or place: 1645, in W. Lilly's Starry Messenger.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart give 1647,^[6][5] Etymonline the 1640s,^[4] and Dictionary.com 1640–50.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The logical sense, to lay something down as a fact or as the basis of an argument, is recorded in 1697 in a translation of Burgersdijck,^[2][5] and in the 1690s in Etymonline.^[4] It belongs chiefly to logic and philosophy.^[2][9] The OED adds a passive use, of being based on something, and the noun for a thing presumed to exist or be true, both from 1900.^[2]

Timeline

• 1645 – to put in position, to place.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1647.^[6]
• 1697 – to put forward as fact or as a basis for argument.^[2][5]
• 1900 – noun, something presumed; in the passive, to be based on.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To assume or put forward as fact or as the basis of an argument; to postulate: The theory posits a hidden cause.^[10][6][2]
2. To propose as an explanation.^[6]
3. To put in position; to set in place.^[10][6][2]

Noun

1. Something assumed or put forward as fact; an assumption.^[10][6][2]

Related words

• position
• positive
• ponent
• positum

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins