consist

What it means

1. copulativeobsoleteTo be.

   District number twenty-five (25) shall consist the counties of Tompkins, Seneca and Yates.

   1846, District School Journal for the State of New-York - Volume 7, page 183

   1 more example

   Why doe they cover with so many lets, one over another, those parts where chiefly consisteth [translating loge] our pleasure and theirs?

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 15, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

2. archaicintransitiveTo exist or be compatible.

   All things do not consist by Christ today, and all the way back to Adam all things have not consisted by Christ.

   2010, Michael O'Buck, Eternal Life: A Question of Honor, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   [Homer] allows their characters such estimable qualities as could consist, and in truth generally do, with tender frailties.

   1715–1720, Homer, “Book VI”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, section footnote

   First, because it is granted by all divines, that hypothetical necessity, or necessity upon a supposition, may consist with liberty.

   1841, “The” Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance

In a sentence

Why doe they cover with so many lets, one over another, those parts where chiefly consisteth [translating loge] our pleasure and theirs?

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 15, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Latinconsistō“stand together, stop, become hard or solid, agree with, continue, exist”
2. Middle Frenchconsister
3. Englishconsist

From Middle French consister, from Latin consistō (“stand together, stop, become hard or solid, agree with, continue, exist”), from com- (“together”) + sistō (“to cause to stand, stand”).