*steh₂-

Reconstruction

LIV and NIL set up the root as *steh₂-, glossed 'to step somewhere, to take one's stand'.^[1][2] Beekes and Kroonen write it the same way,^[3][4] Cheung writes *steH₂,^[5] and Adams *stehₐ-.^[6] Kloekhorst and Adams cite a form with s-mobile, *(s)teh₂-, for Anatolian and Tocharian verbs without the initial s.^[7][8] Watkins enters the root as *stā-, which he explains as the contracted outcome of an older *steə₂- coloured to *staə₂-; this is the pre-laryngeal spelling of the same root.^[9]

Morphology

LIV reconstructs a root aorist *stéh₂-/sth₂- (Sanskrit अस्थात् (ásthāt)), an i-reduplicated athematic present *sti-stéh₂/sth₂- (Sanskrit तिष्ठति (tíṣṭhati), Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi), Latin sistō), a nasal-infix present *st-né/n̥-h₂-, a perfect *ste-stóh₂/sth₂- (Sanskrit तस्थौ (tastháu)) and a causative *stoh₂-éi̯e-.^[1] It treats the stative verbs of Italic, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic (Latin stō (“to stand”), Old Irish táu (“I am”), Old High German stēn (“to stand”), Old Church Slavonic стоꙗти (stojati, “to stand”)) as an innovation, built as *sth₂-eh₁i̯e- or *sth₂-h₁i̯e-.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs it in the same way, as *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o-.^[10] Beekes matches the intransitive Greek root aorist with Sanskrit अस्थाम् (ásthām) as *h₁é-steh₂-m, and regards the perfect shared by Greek, Vedic and Latin as an inherited formation.^[3]

Evidence

Twelve branches are cited under Reflexes, Anatolian and Tocharian among them.^[1][7][6] Whether Hittite tii̯e/a- belongs here or to *dʰeh₁- 'to put' has long been debated.^[7] Kloekhorst prefers *steh₂- because of its meaning 'to step, to go stand' and because the verb Cuneiform Luwian tā- (“to come to stand”), used in similar contexts, plainly continues *(s)teh₂-.^[7] LIV marks the Hittite verb as doubtful and derives Hittite istantae- (“to linger”) from the participle of the root aorist, *sth₂-ént-.^[1]

Competing analyses

Beekes holds that the transitive reduplicated athematic present Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi) is limited to Greek, while Indo-Iranian and Italo-Celtic have thematic presents from *-sth₂-e-ti.^[3] LIV notes that all the forms of the reduplicated present could go back to a thematic *sti-sth₂-a- if the athematic inflection of Greek is secondary.^[1] Fortson cites Latin sistō as a reduplicated thematic present with zero grade of the root.^[11] Jasanoff reconstructs 'stand', like 'sit', as an athematic h₂e-conjugation present with an invariant zero-grade stem, and takes the Greek active as a back-formation from the middle Ancient Greek ἵσταμαι (hístamai).^[12] For the Germanic verb, Kroonen weighs a Narten present *stéh₂-ti, which has no counterpart outside Germanic, against an i-present *sth₂-é/ói-ti.^[4] Ringe finds the nasal infix of the present and the past built on *stā-t- puzzling in that branch, and suggests that the alternative present may be an inherited j-present to the zero-grade root.^[13]

Meanings

1. to step somewhere, to take one's stand^[1][2]

LIV's gloss describes a change of position; the state 'to stand' is expressed by the perfect, as in Sanskrit तस्थौ (tastháu, “stands”) and Ancient Greek ἕσταμεν (héstamen, “we stand”), and the stative Latin stāre took over that function from the perfect in Latin.^[1] Beekes glosses the root 'stand, set', and Mallory and Adams 'stand'.^[3][14]

Derivatives

• *sth₂-tó- 'standing, placed': Sanskrit स्थित (sthitá-), Ancient Greek στατός (statós), Latin status.^[3][14]
• *sth₂-tí- 'standing, erection': Sanskrit स्थिति (sthíti-, “stay, sojourn”), Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis), Latin statim (“firmly, steadfastly”).^[14]
• *sth₂-dʰlo-: Latin stabulum (“stable, shed”) and, in Kroonen's view, Proto-Germanic *stalla- (“standing, stall, stable”).^[15][10]
• *sth₂-tlo-: Proto-Germanic *staþla- (“standing, shed”), beside Latin obstāculum from *steh₂-tlo-.^[16]
• *stéh₂-lo-: Proto-Germanic *stōla- (“seat”), in Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌻𐍃 (stols).^[17]
• *stah₂-ró-: Lithuanian stóras, Old Church Slavonic старъ (starŭ).^[2]

Reflexes

• Anatolian: Hittite tii̯e/a- (“to step, to go stand”), Cuneiform Luwian tā- (“to come to stand”).^[7]
• Tocharian: Tocharian B stā- (“to conclude”).^[6]
• Indo-Aryan, as listed by LIV: Sanskrit तिष्ठति (tíṣṭhati, “steps, takes one's stand; stands”), Sanskrit अस्थात् (ásthāt, “has stepped”).^[1]
• Iranian: Proto-Iranian *staH (“to place, set; to stand”),^[5] and in LIV Avestan hištəṇti (“they take their stand, they stand”).^[1]
• Armenian, as listed by LIV: Old Armenian երթամ (ertʽam, “I go”).^[1]
• Greek: Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to make stand, set up”).^[3]
• Italic: Latin sistō (“to cause to stand, set up”), Latin stō (“to stand”), Umbrian sestu.^[18][10]
• Celtic: Proto-Celtic *tā-yo- (“to stand, to find oneself”), in Old Irish at-tá (“is, finds oneself”); Celtiberian sistat.^[19][20]
• Germanic: Proto-Germanic *stēn- (“to stand”), in suppletion with Proto-Germanic *standan-.^[4]
• Slavic: Old Church Slavonic стати (stati, “to stand, to become”).^[21]
• Baltic: Lithuanian stóti (“to stand”), Latvian stât, Old Prussian postāt (“to become”).^[22][21]
• Albanian, as listed by LIV: Albanian shton (“adds”).^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert, p. s.v. *steh₂-
2. ^ a b c Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *steh₂-
3. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ἵστημι
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 477
5. ^ a b Cheung, Johnny (2007), Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb, Leiden: Brill, p. 383
6. ^ a b c Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), A Dictionary of Tocharian B, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 775
7. ^ a b c d e Kloekhorst, Alwin (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, p. 879
8. ^ Adams, Douglas Q. (2013), A Dictionary of Tocharian B, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 304
9. ^ Watkins, Calvert (2000), "Indo-European Roots", appendix to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin, p. s.v. stā-
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. stō
11. ^ Fortson, Benjamin W., IV (2010), Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed., Malden, MA / Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, p. §5.36
12. ^ Jasanoff, Jay H. (2003), Hittite and the Indo-European Verb, Oxford: OUP, p. 131
13. ^ Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Mallory, J. P.; Adams, D. Q. (2006), The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, Oxford: OUP, p. 66
15. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 472
16. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 475
17. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 481
18. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sistō
19. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Leiden: Brill, p. 384
20. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic, Leiden: Brill, p. 348
21. ^ a b Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 465
22. ^ Hock, Wolfgang, et al. (2015), Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (ALEW), online and Hamburg: Baar, p. s.v. stóti