Insisting

How to spell insisting

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce insisting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does insisting mean?

1. verbDemanding something firmly, or maintaining a point with determination and refusing to give way.

Insisting in a sentence

• She kept insisting that the invoice had already been paid in full.

• He was insisting on a window seat for the long flight home.

Where does insisting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of 'insist', which English took from the Latin verb insistere, meaning 'to stand on' or 'to press upon'. It was built from the prefix in-, here carrying the sense 'upon' or 'on', joined to sistere, 'to stand' or 'to take a stand', a verb formed by reduplication from stare, 'to stand'. The literal idea of planting your feet on something shifted naturally into the figurative sense of holding your ground in an argument and demanding that a point be accepted. English adopted the word in the sixteenth century, first in the physical 'dwell upon' sense and soon in the modern 'firmly maintain' sense. The same sistere root quietly sits inside relatives such as 'resist', 'persist', and 'consist', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps a single 's' in each syllable rather than doubling.

How the word is built

• in- (upon, on)
• sist (from sistere: to stand, take a stand)
• -ing (present participle)