leben

Forms

leben (third-person singular present lebt, past tense lebte, past participle gelebt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German leben, inherited from Old High German lebēn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”).^[2][3][1] Kluge and Kroonen reconstruct the Germanic verb with a stative suffix, Kroonen's Proto-Germanic *libēn- (“to be left; to live”).^[2][4] The same word is Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban), Old Norse lifa, Old English libban, Old Frisian libba and Old Saxon libbian, and today Dutch leven, English live and Swedish leva.^[2][4][3]

It is a durative or stative verb beside the strong verb found in bleiben, so that its first meaning was “to remain, continue”, from which “to live” developed.^[2][4][5] The older sense is still visible in lifa, which also means “to be left”, and in an Old High German gloss that renders Latin superstes (“surviving”) with the participle.^[5][6] Paul thinks of survival after a battle.^[5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to leave, cling, linger”);^[1] the Duden and Wahrig connect it, through the sense “to stick, stay”, with the root of Leim, meaning “slimy, sticky”.^[7][8] The old noun for “life” from the same root is Leib.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German lebēn is first recorded in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century, and then in Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “to live, exist”, also “to dwell”, “to live on something” and “to survive”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The infinitive used as a noun, Leben, appears in late Old High German (around 1000) and took over the sense “life” from Leib, which shifted to “body”.^[3][10] Compounds include Lebenslauf (17th century), a loan translation of Latin curriculum vitae, Lebensmittel “food” (17th century) and Lebensqualität (second half of the 20th century), after English quality of life.^[3][7] The adjective lebendig goes back to Old High German lebēntīg (9th century).^[3]

The sense “to reside, have one's home” is attributed by the Duden dictionary to the influence of English to live.^[11] The alliterating formula wie er leibt und lebt “to the life, exactly as he is” preserves the connection with Leib.^[5] ableben “to die” first meant “to live to the end” (16th century).^[7]

Timeline

• 3rd quarter of the 8th century – Old High German lebēn appears in glosses.^[9]
• 9th century – lebēntīg “alive” is recorded.^[3]
• c. 1000 – The noun lebēn “life” appears.^[3][12]
• 16th century – ableben is formed.^[7]
• 17th century – Lebenslauf and Lebensmittel are formed.^[3]
• Second half of the 20th century – Lebensqualität is formed after English.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be alive, not dead: Der alte Hund lebt noch.^[11][1]
2. To spend one's life in a certain way: sparsam leben.^[11]
3. To reside, have one's home: Sie lebt seit Jahren in Leipzig.^[11][1]
4. To subsist on, live off: von der Rente leben.^[11][1]
5. To lead (a life), live out: ein ruhiges Leben leben.^[11][1]
6. To devote oneself to: für die Musik leben.^[11]

Word family

• Leben
• lebendig
• lebhaft
• Lebewesen
• Lebewohl
• ableben
• erleben
• überleben
• beleben
• zusammenleben

Related words

• bleiben
• Leib
• Leim
• English live

Usage notes

Early New High German also had an unrelated leben “to curdle (milk)”, a variant of laben, used by Mathesius.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 565
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 397
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 511
8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 409
11. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
13. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 424
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling