aptitude

[In Fr. aptitude; Sp. aptitud; Port. axtidao; Ital. attitudine; Lat. apto = to fit; apt us fit.] 1. Fitne , suitablene , adaptation. Used (a) Of things: "The mutual aptitude of seed and soil." Words worth: Excursion, bk. v. (b) Of persons: Competence for, natura i genius or acquired skill for learning or for doing any particular thing. "... he seems to have had a peculiar aptitude for the management of irregular troops."- Macaulay : Hist . Eng . , ch. xii. 2. Tendency towards, pronene to. (Used of man and other animated beings, as well as of things inanimate.) "The aptitude of the Cheiroptera, Insect i vor a, and certain Rodent i a to fall like Reptiles into a state of true torpidity "-Owen: Cla if. of the Mammal i a, p. 34.