Wordwyrt

persist

/pəˈsɪst/pur-SIST
/pɚˈsɪst/pur-SIST

Meaningto stand firm

Common meaning: to keep going despite difficulty

‘through’ + ‘to cause to stand, set’ → persist

Journey through time

  1. Latinsistō, stitī‘to cause to stand, set’
  2. Frenchpersister
  3. Englishpersist‘to keep going despite difficulty’ · today

per- also in: percentperceptperfidyperfumeperjury

sist also in: assistdesistinsistresistconsist

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Latin sistō ‘to cause to stand, set’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Lewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), entry sistō, p. 1711 · dictionary scan

Roots

Related words

assistconsistdesistinsistresist

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