vivir

Forms

vivir (first-person singular present vivo, first-person singular preterite viví, past participle vivido)^[1] Old Spanish wrote vibire (Glosas Silenses), bivir (the Cantar de mio Cid and on to Nebrija), viver (Libro de Alexandre), vivir, vevir and bevir.^[2][3] The strong preterite visque, visco “I lived, he lived” was usual from the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca to the Conde Lucanor.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīvere (“to live”); Old Spanish bivir is the usual medieval form.^[2][4][5][1] In Spanish the verb moved to the conjugation in ⟨-ir⟩, while the other Romance languages kept the Latin one.^[2] The spelling with ⟨b⟩, general in the Middle Ages, was not a whim but a normal dissimilation of the two labials (⟨bivo⟩, ⟨bivir⟩); the modern spelling spread only from the Diccionario de Autoridades onwards.^[2]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese viver, Galician vivir, Asturian vivir, Catalan viure, French vivre and Italian vivere.^[6][7][1] It survives in Ladino bivir.^[1]

The Latin verb goes back to *gʷīwō, from *gʷíh₃weti (“to live”).^[1][8] Its cognates include βίος (bíos, “life”), जीवति (jīvati, “lives”), жити (žiti, “to live”) and cwic (“alive”), whence English quick.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is vibire in the Glosas Silenses; the BDELC dates the verb to the end of the 10th century.^[2][4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the hero promises Martín Antolínez: „si yo bivo, doblarvos he la soldada” “if I live, I will double your pay”.^[9] The Liber Regum (c. 1200) has the strong preterite: „Visco Adam dccccxxx annos e murie” “Adam lived 930 years and died”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses the verb for being alive, for living long, for living in a given way and for dwelling in a place.^[10] Old Spanish also had bevir “to make a living”.^[3] Corominas notes that in some parts of Asturias, such as Colunga, vivir has not taken the sense “to reside”, which is expressed by morar.^[2] Cervantes uses oaths such as ¡vive Dios!.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades extends “to last” to things that have no life.^[12] The Academy's 1869 edition notes the transitive use in poetry and in prose (vivo una vida descansada), and the 1884 edition records the sentry's ¿quién vive? and the cry ¡viva!.^[13][14] The infinitive used as a noun, un modesto vivir “a modest living”, is entered as its own headword in 1899.^[15] In 1855 Baralt condemned vivir sobre el país as a French construction, for vivir a costa del país.^[16] In the Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia vivirse means “to live together”, and in Guatemala vivir means “to cohabit”.^[17]

Timeline

• late 10th century – vibire in the Glosas Silenses.^[2][4]
• c. 1140 – bivir in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[9][2]
• c. 1200 – the preterite visco in the Liber Regum.^[9]
• 1208 – vive in the Cortes de León, the first hit known from no later copy.^[9]
• c. 1215 – bevir in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has ueuir “to live long”.^[10]
• 1495 – the derivatives vivienda and viviente are first recorded.^[4]
• 1518 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the Latin vivere.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy records ¿quién vive? and ¡viva!.^[14]
• 1899 – the noun vivir “life, existence” gets its own entry.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To live, to be alive.^[5][1]
2. (intransitive) To stay alive, to last.^[5]
3. (intransitive) Of a thing: to last, to remain in use.^[5]
4. (intransitive) To make a living, to live on: Vive de lo que escribe.^[5][1]
5. (intransitive, also transitive) To reside, dwell: Vivimos en un pueblo de la costa.^[5][1]
6. (intransitive) To live in a certain way, according to reason or the law.^[5]
7. (intransitive) To live on in fame or memory after death.^[5]
8. (intransitive) To adapt to circumstances to one's own advantage, as in saber vivir.^[5]
9. (intransitive) To remain present in the memory or the will: Su voz vive en nosotros.^[5]
10. (intransitive) To be, remain: vivir tranquilo.^[5]
11. (transitive) To experience, live through: Vivimos años muy duros.^[5][1]

Noun

1. Means of living, livelihood: un vivir modesto.^[19]
2. Life, way of life.^[1][15]

Word family

• pervivir
• convivir
• sobrevivir
• revivir
• malvivir
• desvivirse
• vividor

Related words

• vida
• vivaz
• vivencia
• viveza
• vívido
• vivienda
• viviente
• vivisección
• vivo
• vianda
• víveres
• vital
• Portuguese viver
• Catalan viure

Usage notes

The nominalised infinitive el vivir is a separate headword in the DLE; it survives in de mal vivir “of bad life”.^[19][1] Phrases include vivir para ver and no dejar vivir a alguien “to give someone no peace”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 834
3. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 76
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vivo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. vivir
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9411
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 7248
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. vivir
10. ^ 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. vivir
11. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 1163
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 508
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 799
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1096
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1026
16. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 729
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vivir
18. ^ 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. vevir
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. vivir