Understand, Overstand

In some ways, understand seems like such an odd word. When you understand something, what are you standing under?! Can you overstand something? I think I need to get to the bottom of this.
 
Under
 
Old English under and English under have always been ‘under’. Both words come from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root ndher (under). In brief, in its origins, the word under is related not only to things being ‘under’ something but also among, and between each other.
 
Stand
 
Stand is also relatively unchanged from its origins in PIE sta (to stand, to make firm or to be firm). Among other things, Old English standan meant to stand firm, to abide, to be valid, to exist (to be present), stand up.
 
Understand
 
Originally, the Old English word understandan probably meant literally ‘to stand firm in the midst of’; and later meant to comprehend, to grasp the idea of, to ‘get it’. The related Greek word epistamai (to be close to) means, “I know how, I know it”; literally, “I stand upon”; i.e., “This is where I stand on the matter.”
 
In brief, to understand is to be interacting or engaged in something, to be close to something, or to be in the middle of something. Understanding, in such a context, is not just knowing something (i.e., knowing ‘what’ or ‘how’) but a deeper and more thorough knowing (i.e., a knowing ‘why’). It can be said that understanding is as much about ‘doing’ as about ‘knowing’.
 
The word under is also related in meaning to the word bottom, a word which in its origins is related to the 13th century words fundament and fundamental from Latin fundamentum (foundation, groundwork, support, beginning). In Medieval English, fundament also meant a person’s buttocks.
 
To understand is to get to the bottom of something.
 
Overstand??
 
Is there such a word? The word epistemology (the study and theory of the nature of knowledge) has its origins in the PIE root sta (to stand, to make firm), Greek episteme (knowledge, acquaintance with something), and Greek histasthai (to stand). Greek epi (over, near) + histasthai = epistasthai (to know how to do, to understand; literally, ‘to overstand’). The word epistemology was coined in 1856 by the Scottish philosopher James F. Ferrier (1808 – 1864).
 
Perhaps you have to ‘stand over’ or ‘stand back’ from something that you ‘understand’ in order to know what you know!
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
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