Etymologically
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sisto

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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

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