støttest

Støttest is a historical or dialectal inflected form of the Norwegian verb støtte, meaning to support, uphold, or assist. It occurs primarily in older Norwegian texts and in some regional dialects. In modern standard Norwegian, the second-person singular past tense is typically rendered as støttet or støttede, and støttest is generally considered archaic or stylistic rather than contemporary usage.

Grammatical notes indicate that støttest is formed from the stem støtt- with an ending that resembles patterns found in older North Germanic conjugations. The form is associated with earlier stages of the language, when the second-person singular suffix -est was more widely used. Over time, Norwegian standard varieties shifted toward other past-tense endings, reducing the frequency of forms like støttest in everyday usage.

Usage and context: støttest is most commonly encountered in historical writings, religious texts, translations of biblical material, and poetry intended to evoke an older or provincial sound. It may appear in dialectal literature or in attempts to reproduce archaic language, but it is rarely, if ever, used in contemporary formal prose or official writing.

Relationship to related forms: støttest is related to støtte (to support) through the shared stem støtt-, and it reflects broader North Germanic verb-conjugation patterns that have largely fallen out of use in modern Norwegian. Modern equivalents for the second-person singular past tense are typically støttet or støttede, depending on dialect and standard variety.

See also: støtte, Norwegian verb conjugation, Old Norse language, Norwegian dialects.