stāstīt

Originally the iterative form of stāt (“to stop, to halt”); traditionally, it was considered a parallel form to stostīties (“to stutter, to stammer”), and its original meaning was given as “to stop several times (e.g., while talking),” from which “to tell (a story).” But interrupted speech is not a characteristic of storytelling; it has therefore been suggested that the original meaning might have been “to put, place repeatedly, in various ways” (from Proto-Indo-European *stā- < *steh₂- “to place, to put”), from which metaphorically “to place (with words) the story in front of the hearer.” In the 17th century, there were some instances of stāstīt in the sense of skaitīt (“to count”), but this never became frequent.^[1]

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stāstīt (transitive or intransitive, 3rd conjugation, present stāstu, stāsti, stāsta, past stāstīju)

1. to tell, to narrate (to make something known orally, by speaking)

   stāstīt pasaku ― to tell a tale

   stāstīt anekdotes ― to tell jokes

   stāstīt patiesību ― to tell the truth

   stāstīt savus piedīvojumus ― to tell one's adventures

   stāstīt atgadījumus no savas dzīves ― to tell incidents from one's life

   stāstīt ceļu ― to show (lit. to tell) the way (to somewhere)

   stāstīt par savu bērību ― to tell about one's childhood

   stāstīt gari un plaši ― to tell long and wide (i.e., everything)

   “ko nu tu, Silva, te stāsti!” Dzērvīte norāj ― “what (stories) are you telling now here, Silva!” Dērvīte scolded

• sacīt
• teikt

prefixed verbs:

other derived terms:

• stāstījums
• stāstītājs, stāstītāja

• stāstnieks, stāstniece
• stāsts