lifa

Forms

lifa (singular past indicative lifði, plural past indicative lifðu, past participle lifaðr) (weak)^[1] Viking Age runic spellings: present lifiR, plural lifa, past lifþi.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”),^[1] which Köbler gives as *libēn.^[3] The verb is Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban), Old English libban, Old Saxon libbian and Old High German lebēn in the other old languages.^[4][5]

Cleasby and Vigfússon took “to be left, remain” for its first meaning, which links it with leifa “to leave”.^[6] Torp, Feist and Falk and Torp derive the Germanic verbs from the root of Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (bileiban, “to remain”), Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick”), with the sense “to stick, cling” becoming “to remain” and “to live”.^[4][7] De Vries instead follows Collitz in a root *leibh- known only from Latin caelebs (“unmarried”), and Lehmann reports the dispute.^[8][9] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon sees no need for a separate origin of the sense “to be left”, which stands close to leif in meaning.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Viking Age runestones have the verb in the formula on the Swedish bridge stone U 323: Æ mun liggja, með aldr lifir, brú “ever will the bridge lie, while mankind lives”.^[11][2] ONP's first dated record in a manuscript is in the Elucidarius of 1175: livom ver i honom oc erom “we live in him and are”.^[12] The older sense “to be left” is in a text of 1192: En fyrste fǫstógangr er vika lifer þorra “the first fast is when a week is left of Þorri”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to be left” survived in reckoning time, as in er þriðjungr lifði nætr “when a third of the night was left”, and in the parting words lif vel, which the one who stays was wished by the one who left.^[13][14] From “to live, be alive” came “to live on (food)”, “to lead a life” and “to outlive”.^[15][16] Fire too was said to live, in the sense “to burn”.^[13]

It continues as Icelandic lifa, Swedish leva and Danish leve.^[10][17]

Timeline

• 1175 – livom “we live” in the Elucidarius.^[12]
• 1192 – lifer “is left” of a week of the month Þorri.^[12]
• 1200 – lifir on the Norwegian runic inscription N 344.^[18]
• 1200–1225 – lifa, lifir, lifði in AM 677 4to.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. to be left, remain.^[13][15]
2. to live, be alive.^[13][15]
3. lifa eptir: to survive, outlive.^[13]
4. lifa við: to live on, feed on.^[13][20]
5. to lead a life, live in a certain way.^[15]
6. to burn, of fire.^[13][15]

Word family

• lifandi
• lifna

Descendants

• Icelandic lifa^[1]
• Faroese liva^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk leva^[1]
• Swedish leva^[1]
• Danish leve^[1]
• Norwegian Bokmål leve^[1]

Related words

• líf
• leifa
• leif

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Peterson, Lena (2006), Svenskt runordsregister, 3rd rev. ed., Runrön 2, Uppsala: Institutionen för nordiska språk
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. lifa
4. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 198
5. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 200
6. ^ Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 388
7. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. leve
8. ^ de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 355
9. ^ Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. 260
10. ^ a b Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. lifa
11. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. U 323
12. ^ a b c d Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. lifa
13. ^ a b c d e f g Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. lifa
14. ^ Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. lifa
15. ^ a b c d e Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 383
16. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 256
17. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. leva
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 344
19. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
20. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. lifa