Other forms: persisted, persists, persisting
To persist is to keep going in spite of difficulty. The obstacle is real and you carry on anyway.
It takes in and a verb ending in -ing, so persisting in asking, and that construction often carries a note of irritation, since persisting in an error is not a compliment. There is a second sense about things rather than people, and a symptom or a rumour that persists simply continues. The noun is persistence, which is a virtue, and the adjective persistent describes both determination and an unwanted cough.
To persist is to keep standing. Latin per, through, plus sistō, to stand: persistence is standing all the way through to the end.
Latin
persistō
Middle French
persister
English, today
persist
Built from
From Middle French persister (Modern French persister), from Latin persistō, from per- + sistō (“to stand”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA