insistir

Forms

insistir (first-person singular present insisto, first-person singular preterite insisti, past participle insistido)^[1] Cunha's 16th-century record is spelt insystir.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnsistō (“to stand on; to press on”), with a change of conjugation.^[3][2][1][4] Nascentes calls it semi-learned.^[5] The Latin verb meant “to stand firm, to set foot on” and figuratively “to dwell on, to insist”, and Medieval Latin used it for “to insist, to press someone”.^[3][6][7]

It is formed from in- and sistō (“to cause to stand, set up”).^[1][6] De Vaan reconstructs the simple verb as a reduplicated present Proto-Indo-European *sti-sth₂- (“to make to stand”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[8][1] The same Latin verb gave Spanish insistir, Galician insistir, Catalan insistir, French insister, Italian insistere and Romanian insista.^[1][9]

Semantic evolution

Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 matches it with Latin insisto and persevero, and Feijó (1734) glosses it as “to go on with the same thing”.^[10][11] Vieira quotes the Monarchia Lusitana for a king who pressed God most of all in prayer to obtain the relics he wanted.^[12] Figueiredo (1899) defines it as to stand firm, to be stubborn, to persevere.^[13] Today the commonest sense is to ask again after one or more refusals.^[3][14]

Timeline

• 15th century – first record.^[3]
• 16th century – Cunha's record, spelt insystir.^[2]
• 1578 – a private letter writes ẽsistio “he insisted”.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa's dictionary lists insistir.^[10]
• 1734 – Feijó glosses it as to continue in the same thing.^[11]
• 17th century – first record of insistência.^[2]
• 1844 – first record of insistente.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ask again, despite one or more refusals; to insist: O menino insistiu até o pai lhe comprar o livro.^[3][14][1]
2. To urge advice on someone again and again.^[3]
3. To dwell on a subject; to stress or repeat it.^[3][16]
4. Not to give up; to persist, persevere: insistir num projeto.^[3][17]

Word family

• insistência
• insistente

Related words

• desistir
• persistir
• resistir
• assistir
• Spanish insistir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. insistir
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. insistir
4. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. insistir
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. insistir
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. insister
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
11. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro)
12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1123
13. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 761
14. ^ a b Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt
15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. insistir
16. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br)
17. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org