The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*afstandaną
- Old English · inherited fromofstandan“to remain, persist, continue; restore, make restitution”
- Middle English · inherited fromofstonden
- English todayoffstand
From Middle English ofstonden, from Old English ofstandan (“to remain, persist, continue; restore, make restitution”), from Proto-Germanic *afstandaną, *afstāną, equivalent to off- + stand. Cognate with Dutch afstaan (“to cede, yield, relinquish”), German abstehen (“to project, stick out, stand away”), Swedish avstå (“to refrain, desist, give up, relinquish”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.