Etymologically
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persto

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpɛr.stoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpɛr.sto][1]

Forms

perstō (present infinitive perstāre, perfect active perstitī, future active participle perstātūrus); first conjugation, no supine stem except in the future active participle, impersonal in the passive[1] Livy has the future participle perstātūrus.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin per- + stō (“to stand”).[4][3][1] The verb stō goes back to Proto-Italic *sta-ē-je/o- (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *sth₂-eh₁-ie/o- (“to stand”).[5] Cognate with Umbrian stahu (“I stand”) and Oscan staít (“stands”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first example for “persist” in the OLD is Cicero's “Saturius stands by his opinion”.[4]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call its literal sense, to keep standing, rare: Livy's horsemen stood all day beside their bridled horses, and Tibullus' lover stands anxiously on the threshold.[2][4] It is also to stay on, as Ovid's Muse, the only companion who stayed with him in exile, and to remain unchanged or last, as in Ovid's “there is nothing in the whole world that stays: all things flow”.[4] Most often it means to persist or stand firm in an opinion or course, in Cicero, Caesar and Livy, and with an infinitive to keep on doing something.[4][2]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of standing by an opinion.[4][6]
  • c. 55–19/18 BC – Tibullus of a lover waiting on the threshold.[4][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy of horsemen standing all day.[2][6]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of things that do not last.[4][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To keep standing; to stay on.[4][2][1]
  2. To remain unchanged, last, endure.[4][2][1]
  3. To persist, persevere, stand firm; to keep on doing something.[4][2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de