vivere

Forms

vivere (first-person singular present vìvo, first-person singular past historic vìssi, past participle vissùto, first-person singular future vivrò, auxiliary avére or (now less common, traditional, only in some meanings) èssere)^[1] Old forms of the past participle are vivuto and visso, and of the past historic vivetti and vivei.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīvō (“to live”), from Proto-Italic *gʷīwō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃weti (“to live, be alive”).^{[5][6][7][1][8]} The verb is pan-Romance: French vivre, Occitan viure, Catalan viure, Spanish vivir, Portuguese viver and Sardinian biere.^[6][9] Its Indo-European relatives include Ancient Greek βίος (bíos, “life”).^[6][1]

De Vaan treats the adjective vīvus (“alive”) and the verb as both inherited; the perfect vīxī and the stem of vīctus (“sustenance”) are analogical.^[8] DELI groups the many Latin derivatives under these two stems; through vīta (“life”), vīvārium (“fish pond”) and the noun for sustenance they gave Italian vita, vivaio and vitto.^[5] The participle vissuto is formed on the stem of the past historic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Guittone d'Arezzo, before 1294, in the sense “to spend one's life” in a time, place or condition.^[5][7][6] Dante's Convivio (1304–1308) defines the word: Vivere è l’essere delli viventi, “Living is the being of living things”.^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had the infinitive used as a noun, il vivere “life” and “way of life”, by the 14th century, and vivere for what one needs to live in Sacchetti; the plural viveri “provisions” followed.^[5][11][10] Boccaccio uses vivere for living as social convention requires, and Tasso in 1581 for enjoying life to the full.^[5] Dante already uses it figuratively for “to last”.^[5][12]

The transitive use, “to live through, experience”, is recorded from Della Casa before 1556.^[5] Vissuto “rich in experience” is old (Sacchetti), but Panzini in 1905 called its use for a literary work drawn from life a neologism after French vécu.^[5] Stare sul chi vive, “to be on the alert”, translates French être sur le qui-vive (1690); DELI is not convinced by the usual explanation from a sentry's challenge.^[5] The subjunctive viva! became a cry of acclaim in Giovanni Villani, and evviva grew from e viva.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses vivere for “to spend one's life”.^[5]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it figuratively, “to last”.^[5]
• 1304–1308 – Dante's Convivio defines the word.^[5]
• Before 1348 – Viva! appears as a cry of acclaim in Giovanni Villani.^[5]
• 14th century – Il vivere, “life”, is used as a noun.^[5]
• Before 1556 – Della Casa uses it transitively, “to spend (time)”.^[5]
• 1581 – Tasso uses it for “to enjoy life”.^[5]
• 1905 – Vissuto, of a literary work, is listed as a neologism after French vécu.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To live, be alive: Il gatto è vissuto diciotto anni.^[7][2][13]
2. (intransitive) To live, spend one's life in a place, time or way; to dwell: vivere al mare, vivere tranquilli.^[7][2][4]
3. (intransitive) vivere di: to live on, make a living from: vivere di traduzioni.^[7][4]
4. (intransitive, figurative) To live for, be devoted to: vive di teatro.^[7][4]
5. (intransitive) To get by, survive: con quella pensione si vive a stento.^[13]
6. (intransitive) To enjoy life, live it to the full; to behave as convention requires (saper vivere).^[13][5]
7. (intransitive, figurative) To last, endure: la sua opera vive ancora.^[13][5]
8. (transitive) To live through, experience: vivere un momento difficile.^[7][1][5]

Noun

1. Life, living; way of life: il quieto vivere.^[13][7][1]

Word family

• vissuto
• viva
• evviva
• vivacchiare
• vivente
• viveri
• vivibile
• rivivere
• sopravvivere
• sopravvivenza

Related words

• vivo
• vita
• vitto
• vivace
• vivanda
• Latin vīvō

Usage notes

The auxiliary is essere or avere: è vissuto and ha vissuto are both correct, and avere is the rule in the transitive use.^[4][3][1] The future is vivrò (old viverò), the past historic vissi.^[2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
4. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ 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
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. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 950
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse