sitja

Forms

sitja (singular past indicative sat, plural past indicative sátu, past participle setinn)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”),^[1][2] a present with ⟨-j-⟩, continued also by Old English sittan, Old Frisian sitta, Old Saxon sittian and Old High German sizzen.^[2][3] Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (sitan) has no ⟨-j-⟩ in the present.^[3][4][5]

The root is Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”),^[6][7] seen in Latin sedeō (“to sit”), Ancient Greek ἕζομαι (hézomai, “to sit”), Lithuanian sėsti (“to sit down”) and Proto-Slavic *sěsti.^[2][8] Wiktionary takes the Germanic present from Proto-Indo-European *sédyeti, formally matching the Greek verb.^[1] The causative is setja (“to set”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is on record in the Viking Age: on the Rök stone, dated to the 800s, sitiR nu karuR o kuta sinum says of Þjóðríkr that he “sits now ready on his steed”.^[10][11] A Viking Age memorial stone uses the past sat of a man who served abroad: sem vestr sat í þingaliði “who sat in the retinue in the west”.^[12] In manuscripts IcePaHC's earliest record is siti in the First Grammatical Treatise, which it dates 1150.^[13]

Semantic evolution

From “to sit, be seated” the verb moved to staying and living in a place, staying idle, and tarrying (sitja veðrfastr “to lie weather-bound”).^[14][15] With an object it means to keep a farm in good or bad order (sitja vel jǫrð), to hold a meeting, to put up with an insult, and to let something slip from one's hands through idleness (sitja byr ór hendi sér “to miss a fair wind”).^[14][16] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon suggests that the senses “to occupy land”, “to refuse” and “to neglect, miss” may have lost a prefix, compare German besitzen and Old English forsittan.^[17] With prepositions it forms many phrases: sitja um e-n “to lie in wait for”, sitja á sér “to control oneself”, sitja yfir e-u “to be busy with”.^[14] In the Edda the meaning is often faded, as in sitja at landi “to rule one's land”.^[18] The verb continues as Icelandic sitja, Faroese sita, Swedish sitta and Danish sidde.^[8]

Timeline

• 800s – sitiR “sits” on the Rök stone, Sweden.^[10][11]
• c. 1000 – sat on the Greenland inscription GR 76.^[19]
• 1150 – siti in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[13]
• 1150–1250 – sitja in the Norwegian fragment NRA norr fragm 81 B.^[20]
• 1200–1225 – sitja, sat, sitjandi in AM 677 4to.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. to sit, be seated; to sit at table.^[14][22]
2. to stay, remain; to reside, live in a place.^[14][15]
3. to tarry, stay idle.^[14][23]
4. (with accusative) to let slip through idleness, to miss.^[14][16]
5. (with accusative) to keep (a farm) in order; to hold (a meeting).^[14][15]
6. (with accusative) to endure, put up with.^[14]
7. sitja um to lie in ambush for, plot against.^[14][23]

Word family

• seta

Descendants

• Icelandic sitja^[1]
• Faroese sita^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk sitja^[8]
• Swedish sitta^[1]
• Danish sidde^[1]

Related words

• setja
• sess
• sessi
• setr
• sæti
• sǫðull
• sát

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 325
3. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 251
4. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 334
5. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. sidde
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke, p. 884
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *sitjan
8. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 477
9. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 781
10. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Ög 136
11. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
12. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 668
13. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sitja
15. ^ a b c Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 536
16. ^ a b Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 376
17. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. sitja
18. ^ Neckel, Gustav (1927), Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius, vol. 2: Kommentierendes Glossar, Heidelberg, p. 147
19. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. GR 76
20. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. NRA norr fragm 81 B
21. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
22. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 530
23. ^ a b Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. sitja