Assist

How to spell assist

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce assist

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does assist mean?

1. verbTo help someone, especially by sharing the work or providing support.
2. nounA pass or play that directly helps a teammate score, recorded as a statistic in sports such as basketball, football, and hockey.

Assist in a sentence

• verb

  Two nurses were on hand to assist the surgeon during the operation.

• noun

  Her clever pass earned an assist in the closing minutes of the match.

• verb

  Volunteers will assist guests with parking on the day of the event.

• noun

  The midfielder earned an assist with a perfect cross to the striker.

Where does assist come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin assistere, which literally meant 'to stand by' or 'to take a stand near someone'. It was formed from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward' (its 'd' assimilating to the following 's' to give the doubled 'ss' you still see today), joined to sistere, 'to cause to stand'. The notion of standing beside a person naturally shaded into the modern sense of lending support or help. English took the word in during the fifteenth century by way of Old French assister, keeping the doubled consonant from the Latin. The same sistere root surfaces in relatives like 'resist' (to stand back against) and 'persist' (to stand firmly through), which is a useful reminder of the single 's' in the prefix and the double 's' in the stem.

How the word is built

• as- (from ad-: to, toward)
• sist (from sistere: to cause to stand, to set)