Proto-Indo-European Roots

Proto-Indo-European Roots

Root/Stem:	*sed-

Meanings:	to sit

Cognates (63):	Greek 'ezomai (*hedzomai) - with the initial s- disappearing, the same in 'izw* (I make smb sit)
	Latin *sedeo* (I sit), *sedere* (to sit), > Catalan *assentarse,* Spanish *sentarse, Occitan asseire, French asseoir, Portuguese assentado, Aromanian sedu* (I sit), Sardinian *sezzere* (to sit), Romanian *sedea, Ladin sezzer, Italian sedere*
	Common Celtic sed- (to sit), sodion (a seat) > Old Irish *suidim* (I sit), Irish & Scottish Gaelic *suidh* (sit!), Manx Gaelic *soie, Welsh seddu, sedd, Breton azeza*
	Common Germanic sit- (to sit), > Gothic sitan* (to sit), Old English *sittan, Old Swedish sittian, Old Norse sitja, Old Frankish sitta, Old High German sizzan, > Swedish sitta, German sitzen, Icelandic sitja, Norwegian sitte, Danish sidde, Faroese sita, Frisian sitte, Dutch zitten*
	Avestan *hidaiti* (he is sitting) Tadjik *sistan, nisastan* (to sit), Persian *neshastan, Wakhi nezd, Baluchi nishta, Waziri nostai, Pashto ksenastel*
	Sanskrit *sidati* (he is sitting), *asandi* (a seat) Takitaki *sidom* (I sit)
	Common Baltic séd- (to sit), > Lithuanian se.de.ti* (to sit), Latvian *sédét, Old Prussian sídons* (sitting), Sudovian *séstun* (to sit)
	Common Slavic sédeti (to be sitting), sesti (to sit down), > Ukrainian *siditi* (to sit), Belorussian *sidzec', Old Church Slavonic sédéti, Bulgarian sedja* (I sit), Macedonian *sedam, Serbo-Croatian sjediti* (to sit), Slovene *sedeti, Czech sedéti, Slovak sediet', Polish siedziec', Upper Sorbian sedzec', Lower Sorbian sejzes', Russian sidet'* (to sit), *sizhu* (I sit).
	Armenian *nusdel* (to sit), from *nu-sidel

Notes:	The stem was considered by Gamkrelidze & Ivanov as an "inactive" one, i.e. it was used in Proto-Indo-European only with inanimate nouns, denoting things, but not people. Later, when languages lost that distinction between active and inactive words, the stem became normal in the majority of languages. However, several languages showed another stem, which is believed to have been used for "active" nouns. Hittite, for example, has *es'zi* (he sits), the same for a few other languages. So the active stem with this meaning was **es-*. This opposition of active - inactive verbs is one of the most prominent theories in IE linguistics.