postulation
(pɒstjʊˈleɪʃən)
[a. F. postulation, † -acion (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. postulātiōn-em, n. of action from postulāre to postulate.]
1. The action of requesting or demanding; a request, demand, claim.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) ii. 44 Accordyng to your petycions that ye make postulacion. c 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (Camden) 147 Postulation was made for the continuance of rest. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) 1 Tim. ii. 1 That obsecrations, praiers, postulations, thankes-gevings be made for al men. 1659 Pearson Creed I. vi. 430 Presenting his postulations at the throne of God. 1864 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. III. 375 William,..in conforming to the constitution upon the postulation of the English acted with entire consistency. |
2. Eccl. Law. The presentation to office of some one canonically disqualified, esp. by being already vested in a similar office, in which case the recommendation took the form of a request or appeal to the supreme authority to sanction the election. (See quot. 1688.)
| 1567 Abp. Parker Corr. (Parker Soc.) 306 For his election, or rather postulation, is but to be presented to the Queens Highness to have her royal assent. 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2365/3 The Cardinal, as being Bishop of Strasbourg, could not, without the Pope's Dispensation, be chosen but by Postulation, which required Two Thirds of the Electors to be for him. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1753) III. iv. 209 The Cardinals postulation was defective since he had not two thirds. 1878 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xix. 307 note, All postulations, that is, elections of persons disqualified. 1889 Dublin Rev. Oct. 335 The word election comprehends postulation, nomination, and presentation. |
3. Rom. Law. An application to the prætor for authority to bring an accusation.
| 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 23 The postulation was the regal right of the Roman Commonwealth. |
4. Logic and gen. The taking for granted of the truth or existence of something unproved, esp. as a basis of reasoning or belief; an assumption.
| 1648 Filmer Anarchy Lim. & Mixed Mon. in Free-holder, etc. (1679) 247 Our Author expects it should be admitted as a magisterial postulation, without any other proof than a naked supposition. 1659 Stanley Hist. Philos. xii. (1701) 481/1 We know how absurd this Postulation is. 1865 Masson Rec. Brit. Philos. 380 Mr. Mill cannot surely want this cumbrous allowance of postulation. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 401 The postulation of a single separate ‘centre for concepts’. |
5. Math. (See quots.)
| 1869 Cayley Coll. Math. Papers VII. 225 We may say that the number of conditions imposed upon a surface of the order n which passes through the common intersection is the Postulation of this intersection. 1870 Ibid. 140 The general quadric surface..can..be determined so as to satisfy 9 conditions; or, as we might express it, the Postulation of the surface is = 9. |