resido

Forms

resīdō (present infinitive resīdere, perfect active resēdī, supine resessum); third conjugation, no passive^[1] A perfect resīdī occurs in the Octavia ascribed to Seneca.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- + sīdō (“to sit down, settle”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan derives ⟨sīdō⟩ from Proto-Italic *sizd-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *si-sd-e/o- (“to sit down”), a reduplicated present of the root of sedeō, cognate with Sanskrit सीदति (sī́dati) and Ancient Greek ἵζω (hízō, “to sit down”); he notes that compounds such as this one are attested earlier than the simple verb.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5][6] whose Asinaria has “come now, sit down” at a meal.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “to sit down” (of birds, to perch) it came to mean to take up a position, to encamp or settle as a colonist, and of things to come to rest or lodge somewhere.^[2] Its commonest use is “to sink back, subside”: Cicero writes of mountains sinking down and rivers drying up, and Virgil of seas that swell and fall back into themselves.^[2][3] Swellings go down and winds and flames die away; feelings and activities also abate: Cicero's excessive straining of the voice had subsided, and Caesar hoped the Allobroges' minds had not yet calmed after the earlier war.^[2]

The OLD notes that it is often confused with resideō (“to remain seated”), and an inscription uses it in that verb's sense, as in “lie lightly on his bones”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of sitting down.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of mountains sinking and of a voice calming down.^[2][6]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar of feelings subsiding.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of seas falling back.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sit down, take one's seat; of birds, to perch.^[2][3][1]
2. To take up a position, encamp; to settle as a colonist; of things, to come to rest, lodge.^[2][1]
3. To sink back, subside; of water, to fall to a lower level; of swellings, to go down; of wind or flames, to die down.^[2][3][1]
4. Of a condition or feeling, to abate, calm down.^[2][1]
5. To lie or rest in a place (as resideō).^[2]

Related words

• resideō
• sedeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
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 e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de