Insist

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈsɪst/

Definitions

1. To firmly declare a desire or position, refusing to back down, while ensuring that this stance is recognized and acknowledged by others
2. To firmly assert a position or request while refusing to concede, ensuring that it is acknowledged and understood by others
3. To make a strong and persistent demand or statement without yielding to opposition

Etymology: The verb "insist" carries a Latin picture of standing on something. Its ancestor, Latin "īnsistere," combined "in-" (on, upon) with "sistere," to stand or set oneself, so the original image is of planting one's feet on a spot and refusing to move. English took the idea from Middle French "insister," which kept the sense of pressing onward or dwelling on a point, and the modern meaning of insisting on something as a firm demand grew naturally from that stance. English did not borrow the verb in one neat step. Part of it came straight through French from Latin, while another part seems to have been formed later as a back-formation from "insistence," the noun that had already entered the language. Back-formation works in reverse: speakers see a noun ending in "-ence" and carve out a verb from its stem, so "insistence" effectively produced "insist" rather than the other way round.

Synonyms: demand, assert, declare, maintain, emphasize

Antonyms: yield, submit, relinquish, concede