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).
双语例句
1. Offe also challenges the postulate of an "organized capitalism".
奥费也质疑“有组织的资本主义”的假设。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Let's postulate that she is a cook.
我们假定她是一位厨师.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. Our new postulate asserts that this is precisely what we cannot say.
我们的新假设恰好断定,这正是我们所不能说的.
来自辞典例句
4. A combinatin of sources of uranium may be the most realistic postulate.
各种铀来源的综合考虑可能是最现实的假说.
来自辞典例句
5. If so we shall have a wave function that satisfies our new postulate.
