live

Pronunciation

• IPA: /lɪv/ (verb); /laɪv/ (adjective, adverb)^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English liven, earlier lifen,^[2] inherited from Old English lifian (Anglian) and libban (West Saxon),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *libejanan,^[3] from a Germanic root *lib- (“to remain, continue”),^[2][4] which also gave life and leave “to let remain”.^[4][5][6] Its cognates are Old Frisian libba, Old Saxon libbian, Dutch leven, Old High German lebēn (modern German leben), Old Norse lifa (“to be left; to live”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban).^[2][3] Etymonline traces the root to Proto-Indo-European *leip- (“to stick, adhere”), which formed words meaning “to remain, continue”.^[3][7] The adjective live, pronounced with /aɪ/, is a mid-16th-century shortening of alive,^[8][5][9] replacing an earlier adjective lives.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be alive, to have life (about 725, in Beowulf).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old English lifian also meant “to feed oneself, get a living” and “to pass one's life in a certain way”.^[3][10] The sense “to dwell, reside” dates from about 1200,^[3] “to express in one's life” (live a lie) from the 1540s, and “to make full use of life” from about 1600.^[3] The proverb live and let live was cited as Dutch in 1622,^[3][9] and live and learn is from about 1620.^[3] Later phrases include live up to (1690s), live with “cohabit” (1749) and “put up with” (1937), live down (1842) and live it up (1903).^[3] The adjective meant “having life” in 1542,^[8][11] “burning, glowing” (live coals) from the 1610s^[3][8] and “containing unspent energy” (live ammunition) from 1799.^[3] American English used live for “alert, energetic” from the 1850s.^[12] A live wire carried current in 1890 and was an energetic person by 1903.^[2][3] For a performance heard or seen as it happens, rather than recorded, Etymonline has 1917 and Barnhart 1934, in British English.^[3][2] Weekley notes that a living in the Church originally meant an endowment, a means of support.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English lifian, libban, to be alive (Beowulf).^[2]
• before 1121 – Middle English lifen.^[2]
• c. 1200 – to dwell, reside.^[3]
• 1540s – to express in one's life.^[3]
• 1542 – adjective, having life.^[8][11]
• 1611 – adjective, burning, glowing.^[8]
• 1622 – live and let live.^[3][10]
• 1742 – live stock (American).^[2]
• 1799 – live ammunition.^[3]
• 1890 – live wire.^[2][3]
• 1917 – of a performance, not recorded.^[3]
• 1946 – adverb, at the time of a performance.^[11][13]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To be alive; to remain alive.
2. To have one's home in a place: lives in London.
3. To support oneself: lived on rice and fish.
4. To spend one's life in a particular way: lived frugally.
5. To enjoy life to the full.
6. To remain in memory: her name lives on.
7. To experience: lived through the war.

Adjective

1. Living, not dead: live animals.
2. Burning or glowing: live coals.
3. Carrying an electric current.
4. Not yet exploded: a live shell.
5. Broadcast or performed as it happens, not recorded.
6. Of current interest: a live issue.

Adverb

1. At the time of the actual performance or event: broadcast live.

Word family

• liveness
• alive
• lively
• long-lived
• livability
• livable
• outlive

Related words

• life
• leave
• livelihood

Usage notes

Live in the sense “having life” is used only before a noun (live animals); after a verb alive is used instead.^[14]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org