attitude
pronunciation
How to pronounce attitude in British English:
UK [ˈætɪtjuːd]
How to pronounce attitude in American English:
US [ˈætɪtuːd]
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- Noun:
- a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways
- position or arrangement of the body and its limbs
- a theatrical pose created for effect
- position of aircraft or spacecraft relative to a frame of reference (the horizon or direction of motion)
Word Origin
- attitude
- attitude: [17] In origin, attitude is the same word as aptitude. Both come ultimately from late Latin aptitūdō. In Old French this became aptitude, which English acquired in the 15th century, but in Italian it became attitudine, which meant ‘disposition’ or ‘posture’. This was transmitted via French attitude to English, where at first it was used as a technical term in art criticism, meaning the ‘disposition of a figure in a painting’. The metaphorical sense ‘mental position with regard to something’ developed in the early 19th century.=> aptitude
- attitude (n.)
- 1660s, via French attitude (17c.), from Italian attitudine "disposition, posture," also "aptness, promptitude," from Late Latin aptitudinem (nominative aptitudo; see aptitude). Originally 17c. a technical term in art for the posture of a figure in a statue or painting; later generalized to "a posture of the body supposed to imply some mental state" (1725). Sense of "settled behavior reflecting feeling or opinion" is first recorded 1837. Connotations of "antagonistic and uncooperative" developed by 1962 in slang.
Synonym
Example
- 1. His attitude makes a certain sense .
- 2. That embodies the anglo-saxon world 's attitude to home ownership .
- 3. North korea 's increasingly bellicose attitude towards south korea rattled the world .
- 4. That 's not an ethical attitude .
- 5. Their attitude is correspondingly committed .