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“iste”, in Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
Et suprā caput adstitit: “Hunc ego Dītī sacrum iussa ferō, tēque istō corpore solvō.”
And placed herself just above head: “Having been ordered , I am bringing this a sacred offering to Dis, and I release from that body .” (See: Dis Pater.)
This demonstrative determiner/pronoun is used to refer to a person or thing, or persons or things, near the listener. It contrasts with hic(“this”), which refers to people or things near the speaker, and ille(“that”), which refers to people or things far from both speaker and listener.
As Latin had no person pronouns specifically meaning "he", "she" or "it", any of ille, iste, hic or (most frequently) is could assume that function.
In Classical usage, iste frequently has a secondary, pejorative function of casting the referent in a negative light; for example, iste homō tends to mean "that (infamous/no good) man". This is opposite to ille, which is often used to cast the referent in a positive light. For example:
"Iste," inquit, "sceleribus suis tollētur."
"That man," he said, "will be taken away for his crimes."
For this reason, iste is often avoided in Classical usage as a neutral demonstrative. However, the pejorative function was missing or disappeared in Vulgar Latin, where iste was frequently used as a simple demonstrative and eventually came to replace hic in the meaning "this" (cf. Spanisheste), sometimes strengthened with ecce (cf. Frenchcet from Old Frenchcist) or with eccum (cf. Italianquesto).
Sornicola, Rosanna. 2011. Per la storia dei dimostrativi romanzi: i tipi neutri , , , e la diacronia dei dimostrativi latini. Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 127. 1–80. §2.1.1.