Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Alliance for Mystical Pragmatics

Harmonizing Evolutionary Convergence

Glossary Menus

stel-

PIE base ‘to put, stand’, with derivatives referring to a standing object or place.

Other derivatives include Gestalt, still, stalk, installment, apostle, epistle, stallion, pedestal, stele, and stall ‘stop or cause to stop making progress’.

[Pokorny *stel-3, pp. 1019–1020.]

stultify

The verb stultify entered the English language in the 1700s as a legal term, meaning ‘to allege or prove insane and so not legally responsible’. In the 1800s, it came to mean ‘to cause to be or appear foolish, ridiculous, or absurdly inconsistent; to reduce to foolishness or absurdity’, following the literal meaning of the word.