The origin of words: SIT

Sit dates back to before the year 900. The Old English verb sittan, which became sitten in Middle English before dropping the old verb ending. It has had many meanings since the beginning: ‘to occupy a seat, be seated, sit down or seat oneself,’ ‘to remain or continue,’ ‘to settle, encamp or occupy,’ and ‘to lie in wait.’ It can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic stejan(to sit) and the Proto-Indo-European root sed- (to sit). It is related to the Old Saxon sittian, the Old Norse sitja, the Danish sidde, the Old Frisian sitta, the Middle Dutch sitten, the Dutch zitten, the Old High German sizzan, the German sitzen and the Gothic sitan (all meaning sit), as well as the Latin sedēre, the Greek hézesthai, and it is loosely related to the English words set, sedate and nest. The meaning ‘care for’ (as in babysit or pet-sit) first appeared in the mid-20th century. The expression “to sit back” dates back to the 1940s, while “to sit on your hands” originally meant to not clap after a performance, and dates back to the 1920s. The figurative meaning ‘to do nothing’ appeared in the 1950s. Sitting pretty originated in the US in the early 20th century.