positus

Latin

Etymology

Perfect passive participle of pōnō.

Participle

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

1. located, placed, situated
   • 8 CE, Ovid, 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, Ovid, Fasti 1.207:

     iūra dabat populīs positō modo praetor arātrō

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

Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

	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

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

References

• “positus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “positus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• positus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s 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