posa

Forms

posa f (plural pose)^[1]

Etymology

In its old senses of rest and pause the word is inherited from Latin pausa (“cessation, pause”).^[2][3][1] In Late Latin the word was glossed with requies (“rest”).^[4][2] In the senses of placing, posing and exposure it is a deverbal noun from Italian posare, the verb that continues the same Latin family.^[5][6][7][2]

The relation between the Latin noun and the verb is not clear: the usual view takes the verb from the noun and the noun from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “cessation”), while some scholars, less convincingly for DELI, take the noun as derived from the verb.^[5][8][1] The use of the word for a studied, affected attitude, like the verb's sense “to give oneself airs”, follows French pose (1862) and French poser.^[5][2] Related Romance nouns are Old Occitan paus and Spanish posa “rest”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the first record to about 1250, in the poetry of Giacomo da Lentini, with the sense “rest, quiet”.^[5] Jacopone da Todi has the variant pusa: mai non ha pusa “it never has rest”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian posa was a pause or rest from toil or pain, and Dante uses it so: the souls of the lustful have no hope non che di posa, ma di minor pena “not of rest, but even of lesser pain”.^[2][10] The phrase senza posa “without pause” goes back to Dante too.^[4] In older usage the word also meant a pause in writing or reading and a musical rest.^[4][11][12]

The newer senses come from the verb posare.^[5][2] The act of placing or laying something is recorded in 1726 (Salvini), the pose held by someone being portrayed in 1827, an affected, unnatural attitude in 1862, the sediment of a liquid in 1895, the exposure of a photographic film in 1917, and the laying of electric cables in 1973.^[5] From photography the word passed to a single frame of a film (un rullino da 24 pose) and, in cinema, to an actor's day of work, as in teatro di posa, a film studio.^[6][3][12]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses posa for rest.^[5]
• 13th century – Jacopone da Todi writes the variant pusa.^[2][4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word in the Inferno and the phrase senza posa.^[2][4]
• 1726 – Salvini uses it for the act of placing.^[5]
• 1827 – The sense “pose held for a portrait” is recorded in a Milanese print.^[5]
• 1862 – The sense “affected attitude” appears, after French pose.^[5]
• 1917 – The photographic sense “exposure” is recorded.^[5]
• 1973 – The laying of electric cables is called posa.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of placing or laying something: la posa dei binari “the laying of the rails”;^[6][7][13] posa in opera, installation.^[6][7][13]
2. The act of holding still in a position to be painted or photographed; a sitting: tre ore di posa.^[6][13]
3. A pose, the position of the body taken for a portrait, or any posture: mettersi in posa.^[6][3][13]
4. (figurative) An affected, studied attitude, a show put on out of vanity: è tutta una posa.^[6][3][14]
5. (photography) Exposure of the film; a shot with an exposure longer than a second; each frame of a roll of film.^[6][7][13]
6. (cinema) An actor's day of work on a film.^[3][12][14]
7. (literary) A pause or rest, respite: senza posa.^[6][7][13]
8. The sediment that settles at the bottom of a vessel of liquid.^[6][3][13]

Word family

• posaiolo

Related words

• pausa
• posare
• French pose

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include senza posa “ceaselessly”, mettersi in posa “to pose”, teatro di posa “film studio” and tempo di posa “exposure time”.^[6][12] In Calabrian posa is also a separate word for dried beans, from French pois “pea”.^[15][4] Posa is also a form of the verb posare.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3033
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET