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Origin and history of assist

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.

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

Entries linking to assist

assistance(n.)

early 15c., "act of helping or aiding; help given, aid," from Old French assistance and Medieval Latin assistentia, from the respective verbs (see assist (v.)).

assistant(adj.)

mid-15c., "helpful, of assistance," from Latin assistentem (nominative assistens), present participle of assistere "stand by, attend" (see assist (v.)). The spelling changed in French then (16c.) in English.

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Trends of assist

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

More to explore

serve
late 12c., serven, "to render habitual obedience to, owe allegiance to," also "minister, give aid, give help," from Old French servir "to do duty toward, show devotion to; set table, serve at table; offer, provide with," from Latin servire "be a servant, be in service, be enslave
attend
c. 1300, "be subject to" (obsolete); early 14c., "direct one's mind or energies" (archaic), from Old French atendre "to expect, wait for, pay attention" (12c., Modern French attendre) and directly from Latin attendere "give heed to," literally "to stretch toward," from ad "to, to
help
Old English helpan "to help, support, succor; benefit, do good to; cure, amend" (transitive, class III strong verb; past tense healp, past participle holpen), from Proto-Germanic *helpanan (source also of Old Norse hjalpa, Old Frisian helpa, Middle Dutch and Dutch helpen, Old Hig
prompt
The meaning "coach (someone), assist (a learner or speaker) by suggesting something forgotten or imperfectly learned or known..." is from early 15c.; specifically in the theatrical sense of "to assist a speaker with lines" by 1670s....
second
or represent (someone)," especially in a duel, pugilistic contest, etc., from French seconder, from Latin secundare "to assist...
mnemonic
1753, "aiding the memory, intended to assist the memory;" 1825, "pertaining to the memory," a back-formation from mnemonics...
ease
c. 1300, "to help, assist," from Old French aiser, from aise (see ease (n.))....
verse
late Old English (replacing Old English fers, an early West Germanic borrowing directly from Latin), "line or section of a psalm or canticle," later "line of poetry" (late 14c.), from Anglo-French and Old French vers "line of verse; rhyme, song," from Latin versus "a line, row, l
sever
late 14c., severen, transitive, "cause a separation or division, put or keep apart," from Anglo-French severer, Old French sevrer "to separate" (12c., later in French restricted to "to wean," i.e. "to separate from the mother"), from Vulgar Latin *seperare, from Latin separare "t
alleviate
early 15c., alleviaten, "to mitigate, relieve (sorrows, suffering, etc.)," from Late Latin alleviatus, past participle of alleviare "lift up, raise," figuratively "to lighten (a burden), comfort, console," from assimilated form of Latin ad "to" (see ad-) + levis "light" in weight

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