sopravvivere

Forms

sopravvivere (first-person singular present sopravvìvo, first-person singular past historic sopravvìssi, past participle sopravvissùto, first-person singular future sopravvivrò or sopravviverò, auxiliary èssere)^[1] Old forms include sopravivere, sovravivere and the obsolete sorvivere.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin supravīvere, a Late Latin variant of Latin supervīvere (“to outlive”), with the prefix remade on sopra.^[4][5][6][7] Tommaseo cites the classical verb from Pliny and Apuleius, and the form with ⟨supra-⟩ from an inscription from Benevento.^[3] Wiktionary and Gabrielli instead treat it as an Italian compound of sopra- and vivere, formed on the Latin model.^[1][8]

The Latin verb is super (“over, beyond”) or suprā (“above”) with vīvō (“to live”), which continues Proto-Italic *gʷīwō and Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃weti (“to live”), the source also of Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”) and Sanskrit जीवति (jīvati, “lives”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Domenico Cavalca (before 1342), in the sense of living on after others have died or escaping a disaster: in his lives of the Desert Fathers “Panuzio sopravvisse un giorno” (Paphnutius lived one day longer).^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense of living on in memory is dated by DELI to Paolo Segneri (1673), and the weakened sense “to last, persist” of customs and ideas to the Milanese press of 1812.^[4] The participle sopravvissuto is recorded as a noun, a survivor, by the Crusca dictionary of 1691; around 1942 Panzini noted its disparaging use for people behind the times.^[4] Sopravvivenza (before 1644) once also meant, in Tuscan edicts of 1595, the right to an office not yet vacant.^[4]

Modern dictionaries add the senses of a species escaping extinction and of barely getting by on little money.^[10][11] The verb takes essere and has two future forms, sopravvivrò and sopravviverò.^[11][6][1]

Timeline

• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca has sopravvivere “to outlive”.^[4][10]
• Before 1644 – Sopravvivenza is recorded in Guido Bentivoglio.^[4]
• 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for living on in memory.^[4]
• 1691 – The Crusca dictionary has sopravvissuto “survivor”.^[4]
• 1812 – The Milanese press uses it for “to persist”.^[4]
• 1942 – Panzini notes sopravvissuto for someone behind the times.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To outlive someone, to go on living after other people have died (with a): Mia nonna è sopravvissuta a tutte le sue sorelle.^{[10][11][12][1]}
2. To survive a disaster, accident or illness: Solo tre passeggeri sono sopravvissuti all'incidente.^{[10][11][6][1]}
3. Of a plant or animal species, to escape extinction.^[10][11][12]
4. To get by, to scrape a living: Con quello stipendio riesce appena a sopravvivere.^[10][11]
5. (figurative) To live on in memory after death.^[10][11][12]
6. (figurative) To last, to remain in use: In quel paese sopravvivono vecchie feste contadine.^[10][11][6]

Word family

• sopravvissuto
• sopravvivenza

Related words

• vivere
• Latin supervīvō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana