insist

Etymology

Partly from Middle French insister, from Latin īnsistere; and partly from a back-formation from insistence.

verb

1. (with on or upon or (that + ordinary verb form)) To hold up a claim emphatically.
   The defendant insisted on his innocence.
   I insist that my secretary dresses nicely. (that is, I am defending her and claiming that she does; compare the subjunctive below.)
   Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. 2013-06-22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
2. (sometimes with on or upon or (that + subjunctive)) To demand continually that something happen or be done; to reiterate a demand despite requests to abandon it.
   The Prime Minister insisted on his Chancellor's resignation.
   The Prime Minister insisted that his Chancellor resign.
   I insist that my secretary dress nicely. (that is, I require her to do so; compare the use of the indicative above.)
   I know I promised to pay you back tomorrow, but it's not very convenient for me. Can we put it off to Friday? —I'm afraid I have to insist on what we agreed.
3. (obsolete, chiefly geometry) To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
   Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles. 1709, Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis