Latin possum vs English position and poise

[NC]

Is there an affinity between the Latin "possum" and the English words position and poise? What is the Latin route of these two words?

 

[QMF]

Position is derived from pono, ponere, posui, positus (to put, place, etc.) I think. Poise I'm not sure, but I doubt it's from Latin. Not all words are derived from Latin; a little over 50% are, however.

Possum, however, is from possum, posse, potui, meaning to be able.

 

[cinefactus]

I don't have a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary here, but my software dictionary states that poise comes through late Middle English from Old French pois or peis meaning a weight, or peser meaning to weigh, which words originated from the Latin pensum and pendere...

JD

 

[NC]

How about the word disposition? Is the derivation from pono or from the French instead?

Btw, how are pono, ponere and posui pronounced?

 

[cinefactus]

I think as a general rule the -ion words in English come from Latin verbs, this particular one from disponere meaning a number of things including to dispose or to manage.

My dictionary does mention that it comes into English via Old French.

JD

 

[QMF]

Pono: POE-no.
Ponere: POE-neh-ray.
Posui:
Here's where it gets a little tricky. I'm not sure if the "ui" is a diphthong here or not, and I think that's a pronunciation that varies from time period to time period. I'm just going to give both:
POE-swee.
POE-sue-ee.
Positus: POE-sih-tuhs.

Those are just the principal parts of the verb; it's all the same word, essentially.

And touché about poise; I stand corrected.