Word of the Day Archive
Saturday September 9, 2000
posit \POZ-it\ , transitive verb:
1. To assume as real or conceded.
2. To propose as an explanation; to suggest.
3. To dispose or set firmly or fixedly.
It is not necessary to posit mysterious forces to explain coincidences.
-- Bruce Martin, "Coincidences: Remarkable or Random?", Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 1998
Among other things, the researchers posit that the behavior of the muscles during laughter probably explains why phrases like "weak with laughter" pops up in many different languages.
-- "How Muscles Can Go Weak With Laughter", New York Times, September 14, 1999
Some scientists subscribe to this "catastrophic" view of evolutionary history and posit such events as meteoritic collisions with earth, viral epidemics, and explosive evolutionary changes as responsible for species extinctions in the past.
-- Noel T. Boaz Ph.D., Eco Homo
Posit is from Latin positus, past participle of ponere, "to put, to place, to set."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for posit
