relive

Etymology

It is formed from English re- (“again”) + live (“to be alive”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The OED adds that in early use the base may have been the adjective rather than the verb live, and that the word was probably formed after revive.^[2][5] The verb is liven, from Old English lifian and libban, from Proto-Germanic *libejanan, from Proto-Indo-European *leip- (“to stick, adhere”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bring back to life, and to come back to life: both first recorded about 1526, in G. Hervet's translation of Erasmus's De Immensa Dei Misericordia.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1540s,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1540–50.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the verb meant to revive, both transitively (to restore to life, obsolete after 1605) and intransitively (to live again);^[2][5] Shakespeare's Pericles asks how a dead queen "re-lives".^[5] Johnson (1755) gave only "to revive; to live anew", and in 1773 marked it as not in use.^[7] The modern sense, to live a period over again or experience an event once more, especially in memory or imagination, is first recorded before 1711, in T. Ken's Hymnotheo;^[2][3] this is now the main meaning.^[8][4] Late in the 19th century it was also used of an event or period repeating itself.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1526 – to bring back to life (obsolete by 1605); to come back to life.^[2][4]
• before 1711 – to experience again, especially in memory.^[2][3]
• before 1898 – reflexive, of an event, to happen again.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To experience something again, especially in the imagination or memory: Old soldiers relived the campaign over dinner.^[8][4][2]
2. To live again; to come back to life.^[4][2][5]
3. (obsolete) To bring back to life; to revive.^[4][2][5]

Word family

• relivable

Related words

• live
• revive
• relieve

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins