Ubication

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /juːbɪˈkeɪʃn̩/

Definitions

1. The act or fact of being situated in a specific place or the position something occupies
2. A description of where something is found or placed in space
3. The condition of something's placement within a particular area or context

Etymology: The word "ubication" is a rare English term whose most surprising feature is its route in: it was borrowed from New Latin "ubicātiō", meaning "location", and its closest modern relatives are Spanish "ubicación" and Portuguese "ubicação". Those Iberian forms are the ones most people now meet, and English use of the word is shaped by that Spanish influence, which is why it sounds at home mainly in Spanish-language contexts. Behind the New Latin noun lies a short chain of Latin building blocks. The root is "ubi", "where", which goes back to an ancient interrogative root. Adding the verb-forming ending gives "ubicō", "to situate", and its past participle "ubicātus", "located". The suffix "-iō" then turns that participle into an abstract noun meaning the act or fact of placing something somewhere. English then added its own "-ion" ending. Because the verb "ubicate" is probably a back-formation made from "ubication" rather than the other way round, the noun came first and the verb followed from it. The result is a word that answers the question "where?" in its very form.