supraviețui

Forms

supraviețui (third-person singular present supraviețuiește, past participle supraviețuit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian supra- + viețui (“to live”), on the model of French survivre (“to survive”).^[2][3][4][1] The Romanian prefix renders French sur-, and viețui “to live” renders vivre.^[2][5] The French verb is inherited from Old French and goes back to Latin supervīvō.^[1] A rare older form surviețui is recorded.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DLR's first quotation is from Lăzărescu, undated: „Eu voi supraviețui dupe acești urâcioși nemici ai mei” “I shall outlive these hateful enemies of mine”.^[2][4] The first dated one is from a calendar of 1861: the Romanians “have survived all the upheavals that changed the face of the earth”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to outlive someone; from it came “to come through a disaster alive” and “to go on living”.^[2][3] Conta uses it in the Darwinian sense, of the individuals of a generation that survive.^[2] Of things and of a person's work it means “to last, to live on in memory”.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1861 – au supraviețuit “have survived” in a calendar.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu glosses “to remain alive after someone; to live on after a loss”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To outlive someone: to stay alive after another's death.^[3][4]
2. (intransitive) To survive a disaster or misfortune, to come through it alive: Doar doi pasageri au supraviețuit accidentului.^[3][4][1]
3. (by extension) To go on existing, to endure;^[3][4] (figurative) to live on in memory through one's work.^[3][4]

Word family

• supraviețuitor
• supraviețuire

Related words

• viețui
• viață
• French survivre

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. supraviețui
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1078
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1068
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. supraviețui
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. supraviețui
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 630