assist

Assist shows the Latin prefix ad- assimilating yet again, this time into an s: ad plus sistere, "to stand still, take a stand," giving assistere, "to stand by, attend." The literal sense is spatial rather than helpful — to assist someone was originally to stand near them. That older meaning survives in the French assister, which still means to attend or be present at, and in the English noun assistant, someone whose job description is essentially standing nearby.

English took it in the early 1400s through Old French, already in the modern sense of helping or supporting someone in an undertaking. The root sistere is the same one behind consist, resist, insist and persist, all of them different ways of standing. The sporting sense of an assist is American and much later — baseball in 1877, ice hockey by 1925.

assist
(v.)
early 15c.,
assisten
, "to help, aid, give assistance or support to in some undertaking or effort," from Old French
assister
"to stand by, help, put, place, assist" (14c.), from Latin
assistere
"stand by, take a stand near, attend," from assimilated form of
ad
"to" (see
ad-
) +
sistere
"stand still, take a stand; to set, place, cause to stand" (from PIE
*si-st-
, reduplicated form of root
*sta-
"to stand, make or be firm"). Related:
Assisted
;
assisting
. Medical
assisted suicide
is attested by 1884.
also from early 15c.

assist
(n.)
1570s, "an act of assistance," from
assist
(v.). In the sporting sense attested 1877 in baseball, 1925 in ice hockey.
also from 1570s

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