Sètes

Sätes is a Swedish noun whose base form is säte, meaning a seat or place. In contemporary usage, säte can denote a physical seat (a chair or bench), a seating capacity in venues or vehicles, and the figurative position of authority, such as a parliamentary seat or a board seat. The plural form in modern Swedish is usually säten; the form sätes appears primarily in older texts, dialectal usage, or in fixed expressions and as a historical/genitive form in writing.

Historically, the term has been used in descriptions of estates and residences. The compound sätesgård refers to the main residence or seat of a noble family, and related compounds appear in chronicles or heraldic descriptions to denote the seat or dwelling associated with a lineage.

Etymology: säte comes from Old Norse sæti and Proto-Germanic *satô, meaning seat, dwelling, or place. The development of plural and inflected forms has followed Swedish phonology and morphology over time, resulting in modern usage with säten as the common plural.

Geographical and institutional usage: beyond everyday seating, säte is used in formal or historical language to indicate the location of an institution, such as the “seat” of a council, a court, or a religious see. In these contexts, säte conveys both physical location and symbolic authority.

See also: säte, sätesgård, säteri, plats, stol.