Other forms: posits, posited, positing
To posit is to put something forward as a starting point. Posit a cause, let us posit, posited that it existed.
It claims less than assert: to posit is to set a thing down and see what follows, without claiming it is true. It is an academic word and reads oddly outside that world. Note the Latin ponere, to place, which is behind position and deposit as well.
1verbpositTo put something forward as a starting point.
“The researchers posited that the disease was spread by mosquitoes.”
posit is a proposing.
Latin positus is the past participle of ponere, to place. Position, deposit and compose come from the same placing.
Proto-Indo-European
*tḱey-
Latin
positus
English, today
posit
Built from
Borrowed from Latin positus, perfect participle of pōnō (“put, place”). number type of number format was coined by Q9391118 in 2017.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA