English

life

/ˈlaɪ̯f/
The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; the state of being alive and living.

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    Origin

    From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”), from *lībaną (“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”).

    Cognate with Scots life, leif (“life”), Saterland Frisian Lieuw (“body”), West Frisian liif (“body”), Cimbrian laip (“body”), Dutch lijf (“body”) and leven (“life”), German Leib (“body; womb”) and Leben (“life”), Low German Lief (“body; life”), Luxembourgish Leif, Läif (“body”), Vilamovian łaowa (“life”), Yiddish לײַב (layb, “body”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish liv (“life; waist”), Faroese lív (“life”), Icelandic líf (“life”). Related to belive.

    The sense "biography" is likely a semantic loan from Medieval Latin vīta (“biography; hagiography”).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishlyf
      • inheritedOld Englishlīf “life”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*līb
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*lībą
    • rootProto-Indo-European*leyp- “leave, remain”

    Related: Scots life, Saterland Frisian Lieuw, West Frisian liif, Cimbrian laip, Dutch lijf, German Leib, Low German Lief, Luxembourgish Leif, Vilamovian łaowa, Yiddish לײַב, da,nb,nn,sv liv, Faroese lív, Icelandic líf

    Sources