vida

Forms

vida f (plural vidas)^[1] Early texts also write uida, bida and the Latin uita.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīta (“life”).^[4][5][6][1]

The same word is Portuguese vida, Galician vida, Catalan vida, Occitan vida, French vie and Italian vita; Romanian vită has come to mean “living creature; cattle”.^[7][8]

vīta is from Proto-Italic *gʷītā.^[1] The OLD relates it to vīvō (“to live”), and the DHLF and Bénaben derive it from an older *vīvita.^[9][10][11] Wiktionary connects it, as a possible derivative, with Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wo-teh₂ from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), comparing Ancient Greek βίοτος (bíotos, “life”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to a charter of 1085 and then to the Cantar de mio Cid and the Poema de Fernán González.^[4][5] The earliest hit in the CDH, in the Cid, is the name of the moneylender Vidas, not the word.^[3] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the wish “Dios te dé longa uita”, “God give you long life”, and the Cortes de Benavente of 1202 have en su bida “in his lifetime”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses vida for the power of living things to grow and reproduce, for a lifetime, for a way of living and for a written life of a person.^[12] Berceo also has it for the bliss of heaven.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 defined life as the union of soul and body and recorded darse buena vida “to enjoy oneself”; the Diccionario de Autoridades kept that definition.^[14][15] The Academy replaced it with a biological definition in 1869 (“the set of functions of organic beings”) and with “an essential force or activity” in 1899.^[16][17]

Popular speech uses vida and vidita as terms of endearment, and mujer de la vida for a prostitute.^[1][18] In Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela vidorria means a life of ease, and the Argentine song vidala or vidalita takes its name from vida with a Quechua suffix.^[4][5] In the Canaries vida means the umbilical cord or the navel, from Portuguese vide by popular etymology.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 1085 – first record, in a charter.^[4][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos has longa uita.^[3]
• 1202 – the Cortes de Benavente have bida, the first CDH record without a later copy.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of el espíritu de la vida.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as the length of living, Latin vita.^[21]
• 1516 – first record from the Americas, in Darién.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records hombre de buena vida “a holy man” and darse buena vida.^[14]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the union of body and soul.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin vita.^[23]

Meanings

Noun

1. life: the essential force or activity by which a being acts; the activity of organic beings.^[6][1]
2. The fact of being alive: Los médicos le salvaron la vida.^[6]
3. The existence of living things in a place; a living being.^[6][24]
4. A way of living; a person's condition or lifestyle: vida de estudiante.^[6][1]
5. The activity of a person or community: vida cultural.^[6]
6. A lifetime, the time from birth to death; the duration of a thing: la vida de una batería.^[6][1]
7. An account of someone's life, a biography: una vida de Goya.^[6]
8. Liveliness, animation; brightness of the eyes.^[6][1]
9. Something that gives great pleasure; a term of endearment.^[6][1]
10. The means of living, a livelihood: ganarse la vida.^[18][1]

Word family

• vidorra
• vidala
• vidalita
• buscavidas
• salvavidas
• perdonavidas

Related words

• vital
• vivir
• vivo
• Latin vīta
• Portuguese vida

Usage notes

Buena vida or gran vida is a comfortable life;^[18] mala vida a hard or a disorderly one.^[6] Ganarse la vida is “to earn a living”.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vida
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vida
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 834
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vivo
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. vida
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7224
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vie
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. vida
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. vida
13. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 790
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1384
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 479
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 792
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1018
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vida
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. vida, DHECan
20. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. vida
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 430
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. vida
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1087
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. vida