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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
Frisk, GEW s.v. hézomai, states: 'Der Aorist heîsa, hês(s)ai aus idg. *e-sed-s-ṃ (mit sekundärer Aspiration), *sed-sai stimmt zum aind. Konj. ní … ṣátsat “er möge sich niederlassen” (RV 10,53,1).' This view is also found, for example, in Brugmann, Grdr. 2.2.1172 (§812), and in Brugmann-Thumb, Griech. Gramm. 362. To be sure, Gk. heîsa is not generally considered a PIE inheritance. Meillet, Mélanges de Saussure 86, says of Brugmann's list of PIE sigmatic aorists: '… la plupart des exemples sont dépourvues de toute valeur probante pour établir l'existence indo-européenne de telle ou telle forme.' Specht, KZ 62.50–1 (1934–5), considers heîsa a Greek innovation, and Schwyzer 1.755–6 lists it among such aorists as éstēsa 'set', ébēsa ‘brought’, which are clearly secondary when compared to the intransitive root aorists éstēn, ébēn; cf. Meillet, loc.cit, 94, None of these authors, however, directly considers Skt. sátsat in his discussion of heîsa. Since, moreover, the comparison of these two forms as the basis for a PIE sigmatic aorist of *sed is accepted in what is now the standard etymological dictionary of Greek, it seems worthwhile to summarize briefly and more explicitly than has previously been done the evidence against this equation. I do this as a preliminary to demonstrating that sátsat is clearly an independent creation of Indic.
1 Meillet deals only in general terms with the productivity of the sigmatic aorist, while Specht simply states: ‘Es [heîsa] ist so wenig alt wie élexe zu élekto, éstēse zu éstē …‘
2 PIE *sisde/o-; on Skt. s
↓ti, with -d- instead of -ḍ-, see Thumb-Hauschild §452 Anm. 2, with literature.
3 I think this preferable to assuming, with Specht (KZ 62.50), influence of élekto; cf. the predominant use of katá with both verbs from the earliest texts and the generalization of kathízomai, kathezómēn (and ekathezómēn), kathêmai in Attic prose. The asper of hêmai also quite possibly stems from forms of the root *sed.
4 The verse is cited Ap.Śr.S 24.13.3, with the addition of niṣadya (… pūrvo asmanniṣadya), which can come from RV 10.52.1, cited immediately before.
5 Cf. also 5.26.1c:
dev
n vakṣi yákṣi ca and 2c devāṃ
vītáye vaha.
6 E.g. 1.15.12c dev
n devayaté yaja.