Etymologically
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lifelong

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:52. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈlaɪf.lɔːŋ/[1]

Etymology

It was formed from English life + long in English.[2][3][4][5] Its rare sense "throughout the whole day" comes from association with livelong.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lasting a lifetime: 1613, in William Browne's Britannia's Pastorals,[2] although Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the word only to 1855,[3][6] the Shorter Oxford to the early 19th century in this sense,[4] and Dictionary.com to 1750–60.[5]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford records the use as a synonym of livelong, from the mid-18th century, before the sense "lasting a lifetime",[4] while in the OED the order is reversed: "lifelong" in 1613, and "livelong" from 1746, now rare.[2] Coleridge used lifelong as a noun, meaning a lifetime, in 1814, a use that did not survive the 1850s.[2] The adverb, for the whole of one's life, appears in Browning's The Ring and the Book (1868).[2]

Timeline

  • 1613 – lasting a lifetime.[2]
  • 1746 – the whole length of, livelong.[2]
  • 1814 – noun, a lifetime (obsolete).[2]
  • 1855 – adjective, in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster.[3][6]
  • 1868 – adverb, throughout life.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Lasting or continuing through the whole of a person's life: a lifelong passion for birdwatching.
  2. Having been so for all of one's life: They were lifelong neighbours.

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster