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"to stand (be on one's feet)" in seven languages

Meaningto stand (be on one's feet)

Spanish

estar de pie

/esˈtaɾ de pje/

inherited

To stand up is levantarse or ponerse de pie.

French

être debout

/ɛtʁ dəbu/

other source · être (Latin ESSE) + debout 'on end'

Ester, from STĀRE, survives only in law (ester en justice).

Italian

stare in piedi

/ˈstare in ˈpjɛdi/

inherited

Portuguese

estar em pé

/isˈtah ẽj pɛ/

inherited

Also ficar em pé; in Portugal, estar de pé.

Romanian

sta în picioare

/sta ɨn piˈtʃo̯are/

inherited

Romanian sta alone means to stay, stand or sit, as context decides.

Catalan

estar dret

/əsˈta dɾet/

inherited

Dret 'straight, upright', from DĪRĒCTUM.

English

stand

/stænd/

Indo-European kin · PIE *steh₂-

English → Italianto stand (be on one's feet)stare in piediDistant cognateRelated only through Indo-European, thousands of years back (night ~ noche). But English has relatives: station, status, state, stable.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

STĀRE‘to stand’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

Latin STĀRE meant 'to stand'. Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan turned it into estar 'to be (somewhere, somehow)', and Italian stare means 'to stay', so all of them now add 'on foot'. English stand is STĀRE's Germanic cousin.

English relatives: station, status, state, stable

Sound laws at work

S + consonant at the start of a word

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In a sentence

  • esEstuvimos de pie todo el concierto.
  • frNous sommes restés debout pendant tout le concert.
  • itSiamo stati in piedi per tutto il concerto.
  • ptFicamos em pé o show inteiro.
  • roAm stat în picioare tot concertul.
  • caVam estar drets tot el concert.
  • enWe stood for the whole concert.

More words from the same Latin

More in Core verbs

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