stet

See also: štět and štěť

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin stet (“let it stand”), an inflection of stō (“I stand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stɛt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

stet (plural stets)

1. A symbol used by proofreaders and typesetters to indicate that a word or phrase that was crossed out should still remain.
   • 2003 November 6, Lynne Truss, “Introduction – The Seventh Sense”, in Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, London: Profile Books Ltd, →ISBN, pages 31–32:

     [O]ne particular sub-editor […] would proof-read my book reviews and archly insert literally dozens of little commas – each one of which I felt as a dart in my flesh. […] I would thank her, glance at the blizzard of marks on the galley proof, wait for her to leave the room, and then (standing up to get a better run at it) attack the proof, feverishly crossing out everything she had added, and writing “STET”, “STET”, “STET”, “STET”, “STET” all down the page, until my arm got tired and I was spent.

   • 2005, Douglas Rushkoff, "Commodified vs. Commoditized", 2005-09-04:

     And my copyeditors at HarperCollins want me to use the word “commodified” exclusively, since it’s the only one in Websters. But I see the words as very different, and have issued a big STET on that one.

Usage notes

Usually used by writing and circling the word stet above or beside the unwanted edit and underscoring the selection with dashes or dots. Alternatively, a circled checkmark may be used in the margin.

Translations

symbol

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: korjauksen peruutus (literally “reversing an edit”) (generic term used for any notation to reverse an edit)
• French: please add this translation if you can

Verb

stet (third-person singular simple present stets, present participle stetting, simple past and past participle stetted)

1. (transitive) To let (edited material) stand, or remain as it was.

   Stet that colon.

   • 1993 November 4, Nicholson Baker, “Survival of the Fittest”, in The New York Review of Books‎^[2], New York, N.Y., →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 March 2024:

     Truly, American copy-editing has fallen into a state of demoralized confusion over hyphenated and unhyphenated compounds—or at least, I am demoralized and confused, having just gone through the manuscript of a novel in which a very smart and careful and goodnatured copy-editor has deleted about two hundred of my innocent tinkertoy hyphens. I wrote “stet hyphen” in the margin so many times that I finally abbreviated it to “SH”—but there was no wicked glee in my intransigence: I didn’t want to be the typical prose prima donna who made her life difficult.

Translations

let edited material stand

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: peruuttaa korjaus
• French: please add this translation if you can

See also

• stet docket
• stet processus

Anagrams

• ETTs, Etts, TEST, TETS, TETs, Test, Tets, sett, test, tets

German

Etymology

Middle High German stæte, Old High German stāti, ultimately from the root of stehen (“to stand”). Cognate with Bavarian stad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃteːt/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

stet (strong nominative masculine singular steter, not comparable)

1. steady
2. constant, continuous
   • 1909, Lily Braun, chapter 15, in Memoiren einer Sozialistin [Memoirs of a Socialist]‎^[3], Lehrjahre, München: Albert Langen:

     Im Grunde hast du ja recht — ganz recht — aber es war doch nur meine große Liebe zu dir — die stete Angst, die deine zu verlieren, […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. perpetual

Declension

Positive forms of stet (uncomparable)

number & gender		singular			plural
		masculine	feminine	neuter
predicative		er ist stet	sie ist stet	es ist stet	sie sind stet
strong declension (without article)	nominative	steter	stete	stetes	stete
	genitive	steten	steter	steten	steter
	dative	stetem	steter	stetem	steten
	accusative	steten	stete	stetes	stete
weak declension (with definite article)	nominative	der stete	die stete	das stete	die steten
	genitive	des steten	der steten	des steten	der steten
	dative	dem steten	der steten	dem steten	den steten
	accusative	den steten	die stete	das stete	die steten
mixed declension (with indefinite article)	nominative	ein steter	eine stete	ein stetes	(keine) steten
	genitive	eines steten	einer steten	eines steten	(keiner) steten
	dative	einem steten	einer steten	einem steten	(keinen) steten
	accusative	einen steten	eine stete	ein stetes	(keine) steten

Related terms

• stets

Further reading

• “stet” in Duden online
• “stet” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /stet/, [s̠t̪ɛt̪]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /stet/, [st̪ɛt̪]

Verb

stet

1. third-person singular present active subjunctive of stō

Related terms

• stare
• statio
• status