'Constitution' is Latin for 'what is set up together' — from 'stare' (to stand). A standing arrangement.
A body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or organization is governed; the composition or structure of something; a person's physical or mental condition.
From Old French 'constitucion,' from Latin 'cōnstitūtiō, cōnstitūtiōnis' (arrangement, disposition, ordinance), from 'cōnstituere' (to set up, to establish, to arrange), from 'con-' (together, with) + 'statuere' (to set up, to place), from 'status' (standing, position), from 'stāre' (to stand), from PIE *steh₂- (to stand). The word originally meant any arrangement or establishment; the political sense of a foundational governing document developed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Key roots: cōnstituere (Latin: "to
The words 'constitution,' 'prostitute,' and 'destitute' all come from the same Latin root 'statuere' (to set up). A constitution is 'set up together'; a prostitute is 'set up in front' (publicly displayed); a destitute person is 'set away from' everything. The PIE root *steh₂- (to stand) also gave English