ubication

Borrowed from New Latin ubicātiō (“location”) (whence Portuguese ubicação and Spanish ubicación; compare the inflected forms ubicātiōnis, ubicātiōnī, etc.) + -ion. Ubicātiō is derived from Latin ubicātus (“located”) + -iō (suffix forming abstract nouns); while ubicātus is a past participial form of ubicō (“to situate”) (found in British works from the 14th century), from ubi (“where”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- (primary interrogative root)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).^[1] By surface analysis, ubicate +‎ -ion (ubicate is probably a back-formation from ubication).

Later occurrences are influenced by Spanish ubicación,^[1] hence their use chiefly in Spanish contexts.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /juːbɪˈkeɪʃn̩/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /jubəˈkeɪʃən/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Hyphenation: ubi‧cat‧ion

ubication (countable and uncountable, plural ubications)

1. (archaic, chiefly in Spanish contexts) The condition or fact of being in, or occupying, a certain place or position; whereness, ubiety; also, a location.
   • 1644, Digby, Nat. Soule, v., §9., 400:

     We conceiue these modifications if the thing, like substances; and…we call them by substantiue names, Whitenesse, Action, Vbication, Duration, &c.

   • 1661, Glanvill, Van Dogm., 101:

     Relations, Ubications, Duration, the vulgar Philosophy admits into the list of something.

   • 1699, 39 Art., Burnet, xxviii. (1700), 324:

     They are accustomed to think that Ubication, or the being in a Place, is but an Accident to a Substance.

   • 1837, Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci., II., vi., ii., § 5., 45:

     Arriaga, who wrote in 1639,…suggests that the board affects the upper weight, which it does not touch, by its ubication, or whereness.

   • 1866, T.N. Harper, Peace through Truth, Ser. i., 212:

     The terminus ad quem is already existing, and merely receives a new ubication.

   • 1892 August 5, Standard:

     The constant identity of the ubication and direction of the lines [in Mars] proved their connection with the soil.

   • 1952, Applied Mechanics Reviews, page 103, column 2:

     The ubication of such a joint should be obtained as the point of intersection of the three planes normal to the directions of the lines joining the joint considered with the other three.

• vbication (obsolete)

• ubicate (probably)