Sustain

How to spell sustain

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sustain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sustain mean?

1. verbTo keep something going over time, to support it, or to undergo and endure it.

Sustain in a sentence

• The charity needs steady donations to sustain its work through the winter.

• The beams were not strong enough to sustain the weight of the new roof.

Where does sustain come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin sustinere, which combined sub, here carrying the sense of 'up from below', with tenere, meaning 'to hold'. The literal idea was to hold something up so that it does not fall, and from there it grew to mean keeping something going, supporting it, or enduring it. English took the word in during the 1300s through Old French sustenir, and the same tenere root sits inside a whole family of relatives such as 'retain', 'detain', 'contain' and 'maintain'. Recognising that shared -tain ending, all from 'to hold', is a useful way to lock in the spelling, since the trap is usually the unstressed first syllable 'sus-' rather than the stressed 'tain'. The noun 'sustenance' kept an older Latin vowel and so looks a little different, which is worth noting so the two are not muddled.

How the word is built

• sus- (from sub-: up from below, under)
• -tain (from Latin tenere: to hold)