postulate
pronunciation
How to pronounce postulate in British English:
UK [ˈpɒstjuleɪt]
How to pronounce postulate in American English:
US [ˈpɑstʃəleɪt]
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- Noun:
- (logic) a proposition that is accepted as true in order to provide a basis for logical reasoning
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- Verb:
- maintain or assert
- take as a given; assume as a postulate or axiom
- require as useful, just, or proper
Word Origin
- postulate
- postulate: [16] The noun postulate originally meant ‘demand, request’. It was an anglicization of postulātum, a noun use of the past participle of postulāre ‘demand, request’. It was used in the mid-17th century by mathematicians and logicians for a proposition that (because it was a simple or uncontentious one) ‘demanded’ to be taken for granted for the sake of further reasoning, and from this it spread to more general usage. The notion of ‘requesting’ is better preserved in postulant [18], from the present participle of the Latin verb.
- postulate (v.)
- 1530s, "nominate to a church office," from Medieval Latin postulatus, past participle of postulare "to ask, demand; claim; require," probably formed from past participle of Latin poscere "ask urgently, demand," from *posk-to-, Italic inchoative of PIE root *prek- "to ask questions" (cognates: Sanskrit prcchati, Avestan peresaiti "interrogates," Old High German forskon, German forschen "to search, inquire"). Use in logic dates from 1640s, borrowed from Medieval Latin.
- postulate (n.)
- 1580s, "a request, demand," from Latin postulatum "demand, request," properly "that which is requested," noun use of neuter past participle of postulare (see postulate (v.)). The sense in logic of "self-evident proposition" is from 1640s. The earlier noun in English was postulation (c. 1400).
Example
- 1. Researchers now postulate that addiction requires two things .
- 2. It seems that they would look for any explanation rather than postulate a new particle .
- 3. First , we must postulate that if souls exist , they must have some mass .
- 4. But the postulate worked only as long as it was applied to the exchange of physical goods .
- 5. I think we can postulate a utility function along the following lines : having a christmas tree up during the christmas season brings positive utility , but diminishing marginal utility over time .