Definition: Strikingly appropriate, applicable, or fitting; well put.

Usage: Today's adjective has abandoned its family and gone out into the world on its own. The underlying verb, "appose," now means "to place on, apply" or "place in proximity," as in the case of appositive nouns. A noun in apposition to another is a noun referring to the same object added immediately following the first noun, as in, "His new financial advisor, Boesky, (made him feel a bit uneasy"). So "appose" and "apposition," oddly enough, have nothing semantically to do with today's word.

Suggested Usage: "Apposite" is a prejudicial word that takes sides on questions of right and wrong, "I thought it very apposite of our group to bombard the committee with water balloons in protest of their decision to sell water rights to outsiders." It also takes sides on issues of social etiquette, "Yes, but do you think that, 'I just loved your sister to death,' was the apposite phrase to use at her funeral?"

Etymology: Old French aposer from Latin apponere, apposui, appositum "place near, add, unite" from ad- "to" + ponere "to put, place" via a confusion of ponere with Late Latin pausare "halt, cease, pause." Appose belongs to a large family including suppose (Latin original "place beneath"), compose (Latin original "put together"), impose (Latin original "put into" cf. English "put out"), expose (Latin original "place outside"), oppose (Latin original "place against").