Meaning: sit

Illustrative Context

He is sitting over there.

Target Sense

• The most generic verb for sit, in contrast to both stand and lie, i.e. with the legs resting but the upper body upright.
• The stative meaning, i.e. ‘(be) sit(ting)’, rather than change of state ‘sit down’, ‘take a seat’. So the target term in Spanish, for example, is estar sentado, not sentarse; in French être assis, not s’asseoir.
• As the most generic term, the same basic lexeme will in many languages (as with English sit), be applicable to ‘sitting’ either on a raised object (chair, wall, rock, etc.) or directly on the ground. If your language has no default cover term for both senses, but different basic vocabulary terms for each, then enter only the one for sitting on a raised object.
• The target sense is the neutral, literal one of body posture, applying to people sitting, as opposed to standing or lying. In many languages the most generic term may extend to (or etymologically have originated in) one or more other senses, but beyond the basic term do not enter any additional lexemes that add narrower, more specific senses of any kind, e.g.:
  • Lexemes for being ‘in session’ or ‘held in’ a particular place, e.g. French siéger (of a court, parliament, etc.).
  • Lexemes that carry vaguer locative and/or figurative senses of be in a place where one often sits, e.g. an office.
  • Lexemes for specific, narrower extensions of sit, e.g. as being immobile, vulnerable, etc..
• See also the definition of the contrasting IE-CoR meaning stand.