posture

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French posture, from Italian postura, from Latin positūra (“position, situation”). Doublet of positura.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒstʃə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑst͡ʃɚ/

Noun

posture (countable and uncountable, plural postures)

1. The way a person holds and positions their body.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     As if that whatsoever god who leads him
     Were slily crept into his human powers,
     And gave him graceful posture.

   • a. 1689, Aphra Behn, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister:

     […] walking in a most dejected posture, without a band, unbraced, his arms a-cross his open breast, and his eyes bent to the floor;

   • 1895, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest , [Act I]:

     Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous.

2. A situation or condition.
   • 1905, David Graham Phillips, The Deluge:

     Even as I was reading these fables of my millions, there lay on the desk before me a statement of the exact posture of my affairs […]

   • 1910, H.G. Wells, The History of Mr Polly:

     Uncle Jim stopped amazed. His brain did not instantly rise to the new posture of things.

3. One's attitude or the social or political position one takes towards an issue or another person.
   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

     ...that is, their Forts, Garrisons, and Guns upon the Frontiers of their Kingdomes; and continuall Spyes upon their neighbours; which is a posture of War.

   • 1912, G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

     But it is not true, no sane person can call it true, that man as a whole in his general attitude towards the world, in his posture towards death or green fields, towards the weather or the baby, will be wise to cultivate dissatisfaction.

4. (rare) The position of someone or something relative to another; position; situation.
   • 1661, Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World

     The Moon beheld in any posture, in respect of the Sun and us, sheweth us its superficies ... always equally clear.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

     As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear.
     In this posture they travelled many hours, till they came into a wide and well-beaten road […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

posture (third-person singular simple present postures, present participle posturing, simple past and past participle postured)

1. (intransitive) to put one's body into a posture or series of postures, especially hoping that one will be noticed and admired

   If you're finished posturing in front of the mirror, can I use the bathroom now?

2. (intransitive) to pretend to have an opinion or a conviction

   The politicians couldn't really care less about the issue: they're just posturing for the media.

3. (transitive) To place in a particular position or attitude; to pose.

   to posture oneself; to posture a model

   • 1655, James Howell, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. , 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: Humphrey Mosley, , →OCLC:

     As pointed Diamonds being set, Cast greater lustre out of Jet, Those peeces we esteem most rare, Which in night shadows postur'd are.

Translations

Anagrams

• -pterous, Proteus, Puertos, Stroupe, Troupes, petrous, pourest, pouters, proteus, septuor, spouter, store up, troupes

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɔs.tyʁ/

Noun

posture f (plural postures)

1. posture, attitude
2. conduct, comportment

Descendants

• → Romanian: postură
• → Turkish: postür

Further reading

• “posture”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Italian

Noun

posture f

1. plural of postura

Anagrams

• perusto, sputerò, stupore