pose
n. countablen. a specific way of sitting or standing, usually for a photo or a painting. It can also mean a way of acting that is not natural because you want to impress people.
n. a particular physical position or posture assumed for an artistic purpose, such as photography or portraiture. Also used to describe a calculated or insincere manner of behaving intended to project a specific image.
The photographer asked me to hold my pose.
She struck a confident pose for the camera, though she was actually feeling quite nervous about the interview.
The artist spent hours adjusting the model's pose to ensure the light hit the fabric of the dress in a way that suggested movement and grace.
From Middle English pose, from Old English ġeposu pl (“cold in the head; catarrh”, literally “(the) sneezes; (the) snorts”), from Old English pos, ġepos (“sneeze, snort”), from Proto-West Germanic pos, from Proto-Germanic pusą (“sneeze, snort”), from Proto-Germanic pusōną, pusjaną (“to snort, blow”), from pus- (“to blow, breathe hard”), from Proto-Indo-European bew- (“to blow, swell”). Compare Low German pusten (“to blow, puff”), German dialectal pfausen (“to sneeze, snort”), Norwegian dialectal pysa (“to blow”).
From Middle English posen, from Old French poser (“to put, place, stell, settle, lodge”), from Vulgar Latin pausāre (“to blin, cease, pause”), from Latin pausa (“pause”), from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis); influenced by Latin pōnere. Doublet of pause.
From Middle English posen, a combination of aphetic forms of Middle English aposen and opposen. More at appose, oppose.
Commonly used with the verbs 'strike', 'assume', or 'hold'.