stelh₂-
“to put, to place, to set up”Put, place, set up
A PIE verbal root meaning "to put, to place, to set up," continued in Germanic *stallaz ("standing place"), whence stall, still, and install; Greek stéllein (στέλλειν, "to send, to set in order"), whence apostle, epistle, and peristalsis; and Latin locus from *stlocus ("a place, where something is set").
Discussion
The root *stelh₂- ("to put, to place") is reconstructed from Greek stéllein (στέλλειν, "to send, to set in order, to equip"), Old English steall ("place, position, stall"), Old High German stellen ("to put, to place"), and Lithuanian stelti ("to set up"). Pokorny (IEW 1019) and Rix (LIV² s.v. *stelH-) provide the reconstruction.
Greek stéllein (στέλλειν, "to send, to prepare, to set in order") produced a rich compound vocabulary: apóstolοs (ἀπόστολος, "one sent forth," whence apostle), epistolḗ (ἐπιστολή, "a message, letter," whence epistle), peristaltikós ("compressing around," whence peristalsis), and diastolḗ ("a drawing apart," whence diastole in cardiology vs. systole).
Germanic *stallaz ("standing place, position") gave Old English steall, whence stall (a fixed position for selling or housing animals). The verb install (from Medieval Latin installāre, via Germanic) means literally "to place in a stall/position." Still (Old English stille, "fixed, quiet") derives from the same root: what is placed remains motionless. Stalk (the stem of a plant, "that which stands up") may also be related.
The semantic development from "placing" to "sending" (Greek) and "standing place" (Germanic) reflects two different perspectives on the same action: what is placed goes somewhere (sending) and occupies a position (standing).
Notes
gsc-gap: source of "stall", "still", "install", "apostle", "stalk", "pedestal"
Laryngeal Analysis
Contains *h₂; colours and lengthens preceding vowel.
Ablaut
Full grade *stelh₂-, zero grade *stl̥h₂-.