different between situation vs seat

English

Alternative forms

• scituation (hyper?correct, obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”). Equivalent to situate +? -ion

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?t-yo?o-?'sh?n, s?ch-o?o-?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /s?tju??e???n/, /s?t?u?(w)e???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

situation (plural situations)

1. The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.
2. The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     ...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

3. The place in which something is situated; a location.
   • 1833, Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory, page 142:

     [Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

4. Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.
5. (Britain) A position of employment; a post.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin 2006, page 78:

     When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

   • 1946, Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, Choo Choo Ch'Boogie:

     You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

     And read the situations from the front to the back

     The only job that's open need a man with a knack

     So put it right back in the rack Jack.

6. A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

   Boss, we've got a situation here...

Synonyms

• (combination of circumstances): condition, set up; see also Thesaurus:state

Related terms

• site
• situate
• situated
• situationism

Translations

See also

• situation comedy, sitcom

References

• Source for the definitions:
  • Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. [1] (accessed: March 10, 2007).
• situation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• situation in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• situation at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• titanious

French

Etymology

situer +? -ation

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si.t?a.sj??/

Noun

situation f (plural situations)

1. situation (all meanings)

Derived terms

• mise en situation
• situation intéressante

Descendants

• ? Romanian: situa?ie

Further reading

• “situation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Noun

situation (plural situationes)

1. situation, state of affairs

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?tva??u?n/, /s?t?a??u?n/

Noun

situation c

1. a situation

Declension

Synonyms

• läge

Related terms

• nödsituation
• situationskomik

English

Etymology

From Middle English sete, from Old English s?te and Old Norse sæti (“seat”), both from Proto-Germanic *s?tij? (“seat”); compare Old English set (“seat”). Compare also Old High German gisazi (German Gesäß), Middle Dutch gesaete. Sense of "residence, abode, established place" likely derived from cognate Old English s?te (“house”), related to Old High German s?za (“sedan, seat, domicile”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si?t/
• Rhymes: -i?t

Noun

seat (plural seats)

1. Something to be sat upon.
   1. A place in which to sit.
   2. The horizontal portion of a chair or other furniture designed for sitting.

   3. A piece of furniture made for sitting; e.g. a chair, stool or bench; any improvised place for sitting.
      1. (aviation, military, slang) An ejection seat.

   4. The part of an object or individual (usually the buttocks) directly involved in sitting.

   5. The part of a piece of clothing (usually pants or trousers) covering the buttocks.
   6. (engineering) A part or surface on which another part or surface rests.

2. A location or site.
   1. (figuratively) A membership in an organization, particularly a representative body.

   2. The location of a governing body.
   3. (certain Commonwealth countries) An electoral district, especially for a national legislature.
   4. A temporary residence, such as a country home or a hunting lodge.
      • 1806, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England

        A man of fortune, who lives in London, may, in plays, operas, routs, assemblies, French cookery, French sauces, and French wines, spend as much yearly, as he could do, were he to live in the most hospitable manner at his seat in the country.

   5. The place occupied by anything, or where any person, thing or quality is situated or resides; a site.

      • Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.

      • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Building

        He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.

      • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvii:

        I stopped taking the sweets and condiments I had got from home. The mind having taken a different turn, the fondness for condiments wore away, and I now relished the boiled spinach which in Richmond tasted insipid, cooked without condiments. Many such experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind.

3. The starting point of a fire.
4. Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.
   • 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda Chapter 3

     She had so good a seat and hand she might be trusted with any mount.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

seat (third-person singular simple present seats, present participle seating, simple past and past participle seated)

1. (transitive) To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.

2. (transitive) To provide with places to sit.
   • 1712, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies

     The guests were no sooner seated but they entered into a warm debate.

   • 1887, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, History of Woman Suffrage

     He used to seat you on the piano and then, with vehement gestures and pirouettings, would argue the case. Not one word of the speech did you understand.

3. (transitive) To request or direct one or more persons to sit.

4. (transitive, legislature) To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.

5. (transitive) To assign the seats of.

6. (transitive) To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.
   • c. 1610?, Walter Raleigh, A Discourse of War

     They had seated themselves in Nova Guiana.

7. (obsolete, intransitive) To rest; to lie down.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

8. To settle; to plant with inhabitants.
   • 1747, William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia

     The Plantations, for the most Part, are high and pleasantly seated

9. To put a seat or bottom in.

Translations

See also

• seat of learning
• seat of wisdom
• seat of honor
• sedentary
• see
• sit

Anagrams

• AEST, ESTA, East, TEAs, east, eats, etas, sate, saté, seta, tase, teas

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Surmiran, Puter, Vallader) set
• (Sursilvan) siat

Etymology

From Latin septem, from Proto-Indo-European *sept??.

Number

seat

1. (Sutsilvan) seven