Translation
to install; to set up, to fit
Word origin
From French installer, from Medieval Latin installare, built on stallum, a stall or seat. To install a churchman was literally to put him in his stall in the choir, and the software sense is the same act done to a machine.
- Origin
- French
- Root
- installare
- English cognates
- install, stall
Examples
.
He installed a new program on the computer.
.
We have to fit the lamp above the door.
, .
The device is big, but you can install it in one day.
is the everyday word for putting equipment, furniture or software where it belongs and making it work: , , . The older human sense survives too, so a bishop or a director can be in a post, and sin is to settle yourself somewhere.
Now the false seam, because this word invites one. looks decomposable into inst- plus a suffix --, and it is not. Esperanto has no suffix --. The -a at the end of an adjective is a grammatical ending, not an affix, and there is nothing here to peel off: the root is instal-, borrowed whole. If you want the noun, you add a real ending to the whole root - instalo the act, o the installed thing, o the installer program.
That distinction is the single most useful habit in Esperanto vocabulary. A word either decomposes into roots and documented affixes or it does not, and guessing wrong invents words nobody uses. When you meet a long international borrowing, check whether the pieces are real affixes before you trust the seam.
Where this fits
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instali: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "instali" (to install; to set up, to fit): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 42.