Etymologically
Log in

survive

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 00:11. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /səˈvaɪv/, US /sɚˈvaɪv/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English surviven,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman survivre, Old French sourvivre,[4][5] from Late Latin supervīvere (“to live beyond, outlive”),[4][2] from super “over, beyond” and vīvere “to live”,[4][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gwei- (“to live”).[4] Barnhart suggests it was partly a back-formation from the earlier legal term survivor (1425).[2] It is related to revive, vivid and quick.[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To continue to live after another's death, especially in the legal sense of inheritance: 1473 in the OED and Barnhart, in the Rolls of Parliament;[8][2] implied in surviving from the mid-15th century in Etymonline.[4]

Semantic evolution

To remain alive after another person's death is from 1572, and after an event or danger from 1588.[8] To continue to exist after something has ended is from 1593.[8] In law, of an estate passing to the survivors, it is from 1648.[8] The trivial I'll survive is from 1902.[8] Survival is from 1598, in Chapman's Homer,[2] and the survival of the fittest was coined by Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology (1865).[7]

Timeline

  • 1425 – survivor, in law.[2]
  • 1473 – to live on after another's death.[8][2]
  • 1572 – to outlive someone.[8]
  • 1588 – to come through an event alive.[8]
  • 1598 – survival.[2]
  • 1865 – survival of the fittest.[7]
  • 1902 – I'll survive.[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To continue to live or exist, especially after a danger or difficulty.
  2. To live through an accident, war or illness.
  3. To live longer than someone; to outlive.
  4. To manage to cope with a difficult situation.

Word family

  • survivor
  • survivable
  • surviver
  • unsurvived
  • unsurviving
  • convive
  • revive
  • survival
  • vivid
  • vital

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press