# does the verb stánai [στάναι] exist?



## ricardo_arjona

Hi, everyone!

I was looking for the etymology of *apostasy* and all sources seem to agree that it comes from Greek *apo-* (_away, off, apart_) and *stánai*, meaning _to stand._ The thing is that Google translates _stand_ as _ίσταμαι_. So my question is, does _στάναι_ exist in Greek? If so, what does it mean?

Thanks!


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## Sinesio

Χαίρε!
Ίσταμαι is the present indicative, middle-passive form of the ancient Greek verb ίστημι. Ίστημι is the active form and means "I am putting", ίσταμαι is the middle-passive and means "I am standing"/ "I am being put". The present active infinitive of ίστημι is ιστάναι, that means "to stand"/"to put", the middle-passive infinitive is ίστασθαι. I think that στάναι could be a mistake for ιστάναι.
The word στάναι is an existing ancient Greek word. It is the aorist active infinitive form of ίστημι. The normal active aorist infinitive form is στήναι and means "the act of standing", but in some dialects of ancient Greek also στάναι is found with the same meaning. However, it seems more probable that in this case στάναι is only a mistake. In quotings from ancient Greek the present infinitive, and not the aorist, is usually quoted and the form στάναι is not a standard form (it is found only in a few inscriptions from peripheral regions and Plato and Aristotle would never have used it), so, in this case, στάναι is probably a mistake.
P. S. I apologise for making mistakes, but I'm not an English native speaker.


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## ricardo_arjona

Great explanation! Thanks so much for your time!


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## Sinesio

You're welcome!


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## fdb

It is wrong to say that apostasis derives from an infinitive. It derives from the noun stasis “standing”, which is from the root sta-, which also underlies the verb histēmi.


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## sotos

When i shaw the title of the tread, I thought it's about the new Gr.  στάνη (sheeps shed or pen). Plural "katherevousa" (if it exists) should be στάναι. Probably relevant as "sheeps station".


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## Sinesio

Yes, you're right. Aπόστασις comes from ἀπό and the verbal noun στάσις. My point was that in this case στάναι is probably a mistake for ἱστάναι.


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## Perseas

fdb said:


> It is wrong to say that apostasis derives from an infinitive.


I agree. In addition, in Greek  we call a verb by its 1st person singular present indicative form, e.g. we say the verb "λύω" or "δύναμαι".
On the other hand, (I think) in English & German we refer to its infinitive: the verb "to go", "nennen".


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