posture

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French posture (“position of the body, bearing”), recorded in 1588, and as posteure in 1580,^[2] from Italian postura (“position, posture”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded before 1313 as a variant of positura,^[2] from Latin positūra (“position, situation”).^{[2][3][4][5][7]} The Latin noun is formed from positus, the past participle of pōnō (“to put, place”), with the suffix -ūra.^[5][4][8][6] It is related to position, posit and positure.^[5][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The relative arrangement of the parts of something, especially the position and carriage of the body: 1580, in T. N.'s translation of Mexía.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to about 1586,^[8] Etymonline to about 1600,^[3] and Barnhart to 1605 for the position of one thing relative to another, in Bacon, and 1606 for the position of the body, in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the body the word moved to situations: a state or condition in relation to circumstances, as in a posture of defence (1620),^[2][5] and a mental or spiritual attitude (1642).^[2][5][3] Johnson (1755) gave "place; situation" as the first sense.^[10] The figurative stance, especially a military or political one, is recorded from 1841 in the OED,^[2] while Barnhart dates the modern political use (a country's diplomatic posture) to about 1956.^[5] The verb began in 1645 as "to place, set",^[2][3] and by 1656 it meant to put someone into a pose.^[2] The intransitive sense, to assume a posture, appears about 1790 in the OED and by 1851 in Etymonline, at first of contortionists;^[2][3] Mayhew's London Labour (1851) explains posturing as acrobats' distortion of the limbs.^[11] Weekley took the figurative sense of affectation from the professional contortionist;^[12] to behave in an affected way, to strike attitudes for effect, is recorded from 1877.^[2][3] In zoology a posture is a signal pose of a bird or other animal (1912), and the verb is used of such displays from 1865.^[2]

Timeline

• 1580 – the disposition of the parts of something, the carriage of the body.^[2]
• 1605 – position of one thing relative to another (now rare).^[2][5]
• 1606 – position of the body, in Antony and Cleopatra.^[5]
• 1611 – a position of a weapon in drill (obsolete by 1788).^[2]
• 1620 – a state or condition in relation to circumstances.^[2]
• 1642 – a mental or spiritual attitude.^[2][5]
• 1645 – verb, to place, set (obsolete by 1735).^[2]
• 1656 – verb, to put into a particular pose.^[2]
• 1790 – intransitive, to assume a posture, to pose.^[2]
• 1841 – a stance or attitude, especially military or political.^[2]
• 1865 – of an animal, to display.^[2]
• 1877 – to behave in an affected way, to pose for effect.^[2][3]
• 1912 – zoology, a signalling pose of an animal.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The usual way a person holds the body when standing, sitting or walking; carriage: Long hours at a desk had ruined his posture.^[13][8][2]
2. A particular position of the body, or one taken for a purpose: a kneeling posture.^[13][8]
3. A mental attitude or stance, especially an official military or political position.^[13][2][5]
4. A state or condition in relation to circumstances.^[13][2]
5. A false or affected attitude; a pose.^[13][2]
6. (rare) The position of one thing relative to another.^[8][2]
7. (zoology) A pose an animal adopts as a signal to others.^[2]

Verb

1. To take up, or put someone into, a particular bodily position.^[13][8][2]
2. To behave in an affected way, or take up an attitude to impress or mislead: The candidates spent the debate posturing for the cameras.^[13][8][2]
3. (obsolete, 1645–1735) To put in place; to set.^[8][2]

Word family

• postural
• posturer
• posturize

Related words

• position
• posit
• pose
• positure
• compost

Usage notes

In Wright's dialect dictionary the noun meant position or state in Shetland, Orkney and Fife, and the verb meant to strut conceitedly or swagger in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight.^[11]

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 m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins