posição

Forms

posição f (plural posições)^[1] The oldest spellings are posiço (13th century), posiçom (14th century) and posiçam, posiçõ and posysão (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin positio (“the action of placing; position, situation”), a noun of action formed on the supine stem of pōnō (“to put, place”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary calls it a learned borrowing, and Nascentes a semi-learned one.^[1][5] Wiktionary adds that in Portuguese it can be analysed as pôr with the suffix -ção.^[1][5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Spanish posición and as French position, which was first written Old French posicion about 1278.^[6][7] In Latin it meant above all the placing or planting of something, and by metonymy a place or situation.^[7][4]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from an older *posinō (“to put down”), a compound of po- and sinō (“to let, leave”); its old perfect was that of the simple verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the first record, spelt posiço, to the 13th century.^[2][3] Viterbo found the word in old documents for a posture or the act of putting something somewhere, as in an agreement that a seal should be put on a deed.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Cunha's definition joins the two senses that the word kept from Latin, the place where a person or thing is and the posture of the body.^[3] Morais's dictionary of 1789 gives it as a scholastic term for a thesis that one defends, as an astronomical term for a situation or disposition (the círculos de posição), for the posture of the body, and in the arithmetical regra de falsa posição.^[10] Vieira adds the technical uses of medicine, for the attitudes a patient takes, of painting and of dancing, for the ways of placing the feet.^[11] The original Caldas Aulete records the military sense, ground suited to set up a force or to hold an attack, and the grammatical one, a vowel standing before two consonants.^[12]

The figurative senses of social rank, of a post in an organisation and of an opinion on a question are those of the modern dictionaries.^[13][14][15] Wiktionary also records the place assigned to a player in a team sport.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, spelt posiço.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the spelling posiçom.^[2][3]
• c. 1430 – posiçom in the Horto do Esposo (witness 1390–1437).^[16]
• 15th century – the spellings posiçam, posiçõ and posysão.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais lists the scholastic, astronomical and arithmetical uses.^[10]
• 1871–1874 – Vieira adds the terms of medicine, painting and dancing.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The position of a body in space, fixed by one or more points of reference outside it; the place where a person or thing is: a posição do navio.^[2][13][1]
2. posture, the way the body or a part of it is held: mudou de posição na cadeira.^[2][1][13]
3. arrangement, the way things are disposed.^[13][17]
4. A place in a hierarchy, a scale of values or a competition; social standing.^[2][15][13]
5. A post or job in a company or an institution.^[14][12]
6. The situation or circumstances in which someone finds themselves.^[17][15]
7. An opinion or stance on a question.^[15][12]
8. (military) Ground suited for attack or defence; a place held or to be taken by troops.^[13][15]
9. (sports) The place assigned to a player in a team.^[1]
10. (medicine) A posture taken by a patient for comfort or for an examination or treatment.^[13][18]

Word family

• posicionar

Related words

• pôr
• postura
• disposição
• Spanish posición

Usage notes

Estar em posição de means to have the means or the power to do something.^[17] The regra de falsa posição is the arithmetical rule that starts from an arbitrary value of the unknown and corrects the result by proportion.^[17][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. posição
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. posição
4. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. positiō
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. posição
6. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. posición
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. position
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Viterbo, Joaquim de Santa Rosa de (1798–1799), Elucidario das palavras, termos e frases que em Portugal antiguamente se usárão, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 233
10. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 222
11. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 860
12. ^ a b c Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. posição
13. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. posição
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. posição
15. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 7366
16. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. posiçom
17. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. posição
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. posição