Attitudinise

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To adopt a superficial demeanor that is often exaggerated or insincere
2. To deliberately adopt a mannered or pretentious stance or behavior
3. To behave in a way that is artificially stylish or posed, often to attract attention

Etymology: The verb "attitudinise" is a classic case of a word that wandered from the body to the stage. Its ancestor, Italian "attitudine", carried the sense of posture or bodily position, and the English "attitude" first described how a figure stood or held itself, especially in painting and sculpture, before it came to mean a mental stance. To attitudinise is to adopt those deliberate, theatrical postures, striking a pose for an audience rather than simply standing. The Italian word traces back to Latin "aptitudo", meaning fitness or suitability, from "aptus" ("fitted, apt") with the suffix "-tudo" forming a noun of quality. The journey from "fitness" to "posture" happened in Italian, where the notion of a body fitted or arranged into a particular position took hold, and that sense passed into English with artists' vocabulary. The verb itself is formed in English by adding the suffix "-ise" to the noun "attitude", giving a sense of acting out or making a display of that posture.

Synonyms: posture, pose