Other forms: subsisted, subsisting, subsists
To subsist is to stay alive on the barest means. Subsist on rice, subsisting on very little, subsist without help.
It always takes on and always implies bare survival rather than living, which is the whole force of it. The Latin means to stand firm, and it is a relative of consist, persist and exist.
1verbsubsistTo stay alive on the barest means.
“During the long winter, the villagers subsisted on potatoes and a little salted fish.”
subsist is a surviving.
Latin subsistere means to stand firm, from sub plus sistere, to stand.
Latin
subsistō — halt, stop
English, today
subsist
Built from
From Latin subsistō (“halt, stop”), from sub (“below”) + sistō (“stand, place”). Compare consist, desist, exist, insist, persist.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA