withstand

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English withstonden, also withstanden,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English wiþstandan (“to resist, oppose”),^[5][6][7] formed from wiþ (“against”) and standan (“to stand”);^[7][4][8] see with and stand.^[5][9] Similar compounds are Old Frisian withstonda and Old Norse viðstanda,^{[5][9][10][4]} with Old Saxon wiðarstandan, Old High German widarstān and German widerstehen.^[5][7] Etymonline and Barnhart suggest that the English word and its relatives were perhaps influenced by, or translated, Latin resistō (“to resist”), and Barnhart takes the German verb as a probable loan translation of the Latin.^[7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stand against, resist or oppose a person or a person's will: in Old English, before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[5][10] Bosworth–Toller glosses it "to withstand, resist", with uses of a people offering a stout resistance, and also "to be a match for, refute" and "to stand in the way, obstruct, prevent".^[6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense of resisting a person, a force or an attack has lasted from Old English to the present, often with the idea that the resistance succeeds.^[5][3] From before 1400 it was used of material things, as of a wall that withstands a blow,^[5] and since 1725, in Defoe, of resisting an attraction or temptation.^[5] Several Middle English senses died out: to refuse a person something, to prevent (until 1581), to keep away or withhold, and to contradict or deny (1513–1581);^[5] an intransitive sense "to come to a stand, halt" is found only between about 1325 and 1450.^[5] Chaucer used the verb 32 times and Gower 18, for "oppose, resist, obstruct".^[11] In the 14th and early 15th centuries withsit was used with the same meaning,^[7] and Johnson (1755) glossed the verb as "to gainstand; to oppose; to resist".^[12]

Timeline

• before 899 – to resist or oppose a person, in Alfred's Boethius.^[5][10]
• Old English – intransitive, to offer resistance.^[5]
• c. 1200 – Middle English withstanden, in Vices and Virtues.^[10]
• c. 1385 – to stand in the way of, hinder (obsolete by 1825), in Chaucer.^[5]
• before 1400 – of a material thing, to stand up to.^[5]
• 1513 – to contradict or deny (obsolete by 1581).^[5]
• 1725 – to resist an attraction or temptation, in Defoe.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stand up to something and remain undamaged; to endure or hold out against: The bridge was built to withstand earthquakes.^[13][3][5]
2. To resist or oppose a person, a force or an attack, especially successfully.^[13][3][5]
3. To resist an influence or temptation.^[5][3]
4. To remain firm in endurance or opposition.^[13][5]

Word family

• withstander
• withstandingness

Related words

• notwithstanding
• with
• stand
• resist

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins