sisto

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈsɪs.toː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsis.to]^[1]

Forms

sistō (present infinitive sistere, perfect active stitī, supine statum); third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *s(t)i-sta/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sti-sth₂- (“to make stand”), a reduplicated present of the root of stō.^[2][3] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[1]

Cognate with Umbrian sestu (“I place”) and with Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to make stand”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards.^[2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to make a person or animal stand, as Aeneas setting a sow at the altar in Virgil, and in law to make someone appear in court on the appointed day.^[3] It meant to plant firmly, to station troops, to make steady, and to halt, as Turnus stopping his horses.^[3]

It meant to check the flow of streams and to put an end to an activity, as Ovid's “stop the goddesses' contest”.^[3] Its compounds include resistere, cōnsistere and exsistere.^[2] English exist and resist come from these, and sist is a Scots legal borrowing of the 1640s.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[2][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of setting a victim at the altar and of halting horses.^[3][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of ending a contest.^[3][4]
• late 14th century – English resist comes from its compound resistere.^[5]
• c. 1600 – English exist comes from exsistere.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make (someone) stand, set, place.^[3][1]
2. (law) To produce (a person) in court, (intransitive) to appear in court.^[3][1]
3. To present, hand over.^[3]
4. To plant firmly; to station (troops).^[3]
5. To make steady, stabilize.^[3][1]
6. To stop, halt.^[3][1]
7. To check the flow of.^[3]
8. To put an end to.^[3]

Word family

• absistō
• assistō
• circumsistō
• cōnsistō
• dēsistō
• exsistō
• īnsistō
• intersistō
• obsistō
• persistō
• prōsistō
• resistō

Related words

• stō
• English exist
• English resist

Usage notes

Döderlein says sistere and inhibere both mean to make something stand still, sistere of a living, moving thing, while statuere means to make something stand fast.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper