Etymologically
Log in

sitzen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 17:52. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈzɪtsn̩/[1]
  • Germany: /ˈzɪtsən/[1]
  • Austria, Bavaria: /ˈsitsn̩/[1]

Forms

sitzen (class 5 strong, third-person singular present sitzt, past tense saß, past participle gesessen, past subjunctive säße, auxiliary haben or sein)[1] The perfect has been formed with both haben and sein since Middle High German; standard German uses haben, while southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland use sein.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sitzen, inherited from Old High German sizzen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sittjan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”).[5][6][1] The same verb is Old Saxon sittian, Middle Low German sitten, Old Frisian sitta, Old English sittan (now English sit) and Old Norse sitja, with Dutch zitten and Swedish sitta;[5][6] Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (sitan) has no /j/ in the present, which Kluge and Pfeifer take as a secondary loss.[5][6]

The present in /-j-/ has an exact match in Old Irish saidid (“sits”) and Ancient Greek ἕζομαι (hézomai, “I sit, sit down”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”);[5][1] the root is also in Latin sedeō (“to sit”), Lithuanian sėdė́ti, Old Church Slavonic сѣдѣти (sěděti) and Russian сидеть (sidetʹ).[6][7] Kluge sees it as an extension of a root *es- (“to sit”), to which the irregular verb sein may also belong.[5] Its causative is setzen, and many nouns from the same root name the place where one sits or stays: Sessel, Sattel, siedeln, and, more remotely, Ast and Nest.[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sizzen is recorded from the 8th century in glosses and in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[8][5] It meant to sit or be enthroned, to be situated, to dwell or live somewhere, to stay, and also to sit down and settle; the Old High German phrases include zi muose sizzen “to dine” and frô sizzen “to rejoice”.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to sit down” was common into the 18th century (Wieland), lives on in Swiss German and in aufsitzen and absitzen, and explains the perfect with sein.[4][3] In Middle High German the verb also meant to own, to hold office as judge or ruler, and to be subject;[4][10][8] “to dwell” lasted into Luther's Bible and Schiller.[4][10][8] Stieler (1691) records er sitzt “he is in prison” and sitzen bleiben of a girl not asked to dance, then left unmarried;[4] staying down a class at school is a later colloquial use.[4] Lessing has sitzen for sitting as a model for a painter.[4]

Sitzung meant “sitting down” in the 15th century and then a meeting of a body, from the 18th century also a sitting for a portrait.[7][6] Sitzfleisch (17th century, kein Sitzfleisch haben from 1691) is the staying power to sit still;[6][11] vorsitzen “to preside” is from the 15th century, and Vorsitzender (second half of the 18th century) replaced the older Vorsitzer.[6][7] Hungarian ziccer “great chance” (1921) is a German loan from this family.[12]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German sizzen.[5][8]
  • 15th century – Sitzung “sitting down”;[7][6] vorsitzen “to preside”.[7][6]
  • 17th century – Sitzefleisch.[6][7]
  • 1691 – Stieler records er sitzt “he is in prison”.[4]
  • 18th century – Sitzung for sitting for a portrait.[7]
  • Second half of the 18th century – Vorsitzender.[6]
  • 1921 – Hungarian ziccer is first recorded.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To sit, rest on one's buttocks with the upper body upright: Die Kinder sitzen schon am Tisch.[3][1]
  2. (Switzerland) To sit down.[3][1]
  3. (of animals) To be perched or settled somewhere: Eine Amsel sitzt auf dem Zaun.[3]
  4. To live and work in a place; to have one's seat: Die Firma sitzt in Bremen.[3][13]
  5. To be a member of a body: im Stadtrat sitzen.[3]
  6. (colloquial) To be in prison, do time.[3][1]
  7. To be located somewhere: Der Fleck sitzt genau auf dem Ärmel.[3][1]
  8. (of clothes) To fit: Die Jacke sitzt gut.[3][1]
  9. (colloquial) To be learned thoroughly; to hit home, have the intended effect: Die Bemerkung saß.[3][1]

Word family

Usage notes

Sitzen bleiben is said of a pupil who has to repeat a year, jemanden sitzen lassen is to leave someone in the lurch, and auf etwas sitzen bleiben to be unable to sell something.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1280
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 852
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 786
  8. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 1302
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 283
  10. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 944
  11. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  12. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org