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Webster 1913 Edition

Exist

Ex-ist′

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Existed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Existing
.]
[L.
existere
,
exsistere
, to step out or forth, emerge, appear, exist;
ex
out +
sistere
to cause to stand, to set, put, place, stand still, fr.
stare
to stand: cf. F.
exister
. See
Stand
.]
1.
To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual.
Who now, alas! no more is missed
Than if he never did
exist
.
Swift.
To conceive the world . . . to have
existed
from eternity.
South.
2.
To be manifest in any manner; to continue to be;
as, great evils
existed
in his reign
.
Syn. – See
Be
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Exist

EXIST'

,
Verb.
I.
egzist'. [L. existo; ex and sisto, or more directly from Gr. to set, place or fix; L. sto, to stand. The primary sense is to set, fix or be fixed, whence the sense of permanence, continuance.]
1.
To be; to have an essence or real being; applicable to matter or body, and to spiritual substances. A supreme being and first cause of all other beings must have existed from eternity, for no being can have created himself.
2.
To live; to have life or animation. Men cannot exist in water, nor fishes on land.
3.
To remain; to endure; to continue in being. How long shall national enmities exist?

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