writing.markfullmer.com

I've noticed a spate of articles about fortysomething women - single, successful - who "refuse to settle". I'm struck by this word "settle", perhaps because it's often made to dangle so intransitively and seductively at the end of a sentence.
One thing I love about words is how their meaning may start off in something very specific and then move, over the centuries, to widely-disparate environments. Such is the case with "settle", where, from the outset, a core meaning holds its own, with subsidiary applications developing from new contexts to which the word drifts.
Fortysomething women who may (or not) be looking for Mr Right, but who most definitely won't be satisfied with Mr Almost-Right, the word "settle" has particular connotations. It fuses the denotation of "settle down", as in stop one (roaming) way of life and start another (less roaming) way of life. With it comes the connotation of compromise or "settle for less".
A quick glance at the etymology is predictably satisfying. "Settle" comes from the Old English setlan, derived from setl (meaning "a seat"). It first meant "come to rest". And this sense of something now at rest, hitherto in motion, seems to be central to "settle" even while it has moved, during the past 1000 years, in directions as disparate as commerce (settle an account), law (settle a dispute), medicine (settle an ailment), classrooms (settle down please!) and even "settle" a la sand at the bottom of a fish tank.
Then there are "the first settlers" of Australian history, a benign, euphemising umbrella for a most disparate group of people with diverse motivations, agendas and values.
How does this central character remain firm across disparate contexts? Starting with the most physical senses - a bird may settle on a bough, a stone may settle at the bottom of a pool, the ocean may settle after a storm, a stomach upset may settle after a rough night. From there, most meanings have a metaphorical extension: a migrant settles in a new land, an elderly person settles their affairs, an agreement settles a negotiation, a final payment settles an account.
Sometimes "settle" is part of a phrasal verb and a different nuance is evoked - "settle down", "settle up", "settle for", "settle on", "settle in" - but all retain the original notion, central to which is a durational sense; time for one thing to stop and another to start.
All very telling, for when the dust settles.