situate

Formssituates, situating, situated

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To place something on or into a particular physical location.

   The architects chose to situate the clinic on higher ground to avoid flooding.

   Planners situate emergency exits at regular intervals throughout the building.

   Similarplace, locate, position, site, put

   Note

   Behind the verb is Latin situs, "a site": to situate something is, at root, to give it a site. In practice the verb turns up most often in the passive, as a participle that tells where something stands: a statue situated in a corner, a maintenance area situated behind the building. The active form, as in situating a clinic on higher ground, puts the emphasis on someone choosing the spot.

2. 2
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To place something into an intangible position, such as a social, ethical, or fictional one.

   Historians situate the rebellion within broader economic tensions of the era.

   She situated her argument firmly in feminist theory.

   Similarplace, locate, position, set, ground

   Note

   Here the location is abstract: a mayor caught between censure and recall, a book placed within a debate, an argument set inside a tradition. The usual partner is within. Critics situate a work within a larger critique, and Nicole Seymour, in Bad Environmentalism (2018), situates her work within several contemporary contexts. In scholarly prose it means showing how a subject relates to a wider field.

3. 3
   adjective

   Located or placed in a given position or place.

   The estate situate in the northern county passed to the eldest son.

   All lands situate within the parish were recorded in the survey.

   Similarlying

   Note

   Heraldry keeps an old participle without its -ed ending. In blazon a charge is "situate" on a wreath, with the word placed after the noun it describes. The 1917 Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica gives a stag's head "situate on a wreathe gold & azure." The short form needs no ending because it comes from Late Latin situātus, which was already a past participle. Outside blazon, situated is the form readers expect.

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