sit

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sitten,^[2][3] inherited from Old English sittan (“to occupy a seat; to remain; to settle; to besiege”),^[4][3] from Proto-Germanic *setjan,^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”).^[4][3][5] It is cognate with Old Frisian sitta, Old Saxon sittian, Dutch zitten, German sitzen and Old Norse sitja,^[4][3] and outside Germanic with Latin sedēre and sēdēs (“seat”), Greek hézesthai “to sit” and hédrā “seat”, Lithuanian sėdėti and Sanskrit sīdati “sits”.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English sittan, about 725 in Beowulf,^[3] meant “to be seated, sit down”, but also “to remain, continue”, “to settle, encamp” and “to lie in wait, besiege”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to have a seat in a legislative assembly” is from the late 14th century, and of an assembly, “to hold a session”, from the 1510s.^[4] To sit for a portrait is from the 1530s.^[4] Old English sittan also meant “to fit, suit”, of clothes, from which came the noun sit, the way a garment fits (1776).^[5][6] Sitting on eggs to hatch them, said of hens, and resting or lying in a place, as in the house sits on a hill, are recorded senses in the modern dictionaries.^[7][8] The forms of sit and set have long been confused,^[3] and the old past tense set is now dialectal and sate archaic.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English sittan.^[3]
• late 14th century – to have a seat in an assembly.^[4]
• 1510s – of an assembly, to hold a session.^[4]
• 1530s – to pose for a portrait.^[4]
• 1776 – noun, the way a garment fits.^[6][2]
• 1853 – sit, short for situation.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To rest with the body upright and its weight on the buttocks; to take a seat.
2. Of an animal, to rest on its hindquarters; of a bird, to perch; of a hen, to cover eggs for hatching.
3. To be situated or to lie in a place: the book sat on the shelf.
4. To be a member of an assembly; of an assembly, to be in session.
5. To pose for a portrait or photograph.
6. To take an examination; to babysit.

Noun

1. The way a garment fits.
2. A period of sitting.

Related words

• set
• seat
• settle
• sedentary
• session
• saddle
• nest
• sit-in

Usage notes

Sit is intransitive and set mostly transitive: one sits down, but sets something down.^[7] The past tense and past participle are sat,^[9] sitten is obsolete except in Scots.^[9] The British abbreviation sits vac (situations vacant) uses a separate sit, short for situation, from 1853.^[6][9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press