Etymology Category: Body & Medicine

Resuscitation comes from Latin *resuscitare* “to awaken again,” formed from the prefix *re-* “again” and *suscitare* “to raise, stir up.” The noun *resuscitatio* appeared in Late Latin, and English borrowed it in the late 16th century to describe the act of reviving a seemingly dead person.

Posture comes from Latin *postura*, the noun derived from *positus*—the past participle of *ponere*, meaning “to place.” The term entered English via Old French in the 12th‑13th centuries, originally referring to a position or way of placing the body. Over time it narrowed to the modern sense of bodily alignment.