Etymology of life

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗

noun

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. · The status possessed by any of a number of entities, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and sometimes viruses, which have the properties of replication and metabolism. · The animating principle or force that keeps an inorganic thing or concept metaphorically alive (dynamic, relevant, etc) and makes it a "living document", "living constitution", etc. · Lifeforms, generally or collectively.

intj

Synonym of God's life (an oath).

verb

To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leyp-der. Proto-Germanic *lībanąder. Proto-Germanic *lībą Proto-West Germanic *līb Old English līf Middle English lyf English life 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”).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Root classification mention*leyp-ine-pro
Inherited-form mentionlyfenm
Inherited-form mentionlīfang
Inherited-form mention*lībgmw-pro
Inherited-form mention*lībągem-pro · life, body
Derivation mention*leyp-ine-pro · to stick, glue
Cognate mentionlifesco
Cognate mentionLieuwstq · body
Cognate mentionliiffy · body
Cognate mentionlaipcim · body
Cognate mentionlijfnl · body
Cognate mentionLeibde · body; womb
Cognate mentionLiefnds · body; life
Cognate mentionLeiflb
Cognate mentionłaowawym · life
Cognate mentionלײַבyi · body
Cognate mentionlívfo · life
Cognate mentionlífis · life

This page abbreviates 22 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "root",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*leyp-"
      },
      "expansion": ""
    },
    {
      "name": "dercat",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "inh": "1"
      },
      "expansion": ""
    },
    {
      "name": "etymon",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":inh",
        "3": "enm:lyf",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *leyp-der.\nProto-Germanic *lībanąder.\nProto-Germanic *lībą\nProto-West Germanic *līb\nOld English līf\nMiddle English lyf\nEnglish life\n[Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"keyword_abbrev\" : \"der.\", \"keyword_label\" : \"Derived from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Indo-European\", \"term\" : \"*leyp-\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ine-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*lībaną\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*lībą\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gem-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-West Germanic\", \"term\" : \"*līb\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"gmw-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old English\", \"term\" : \"līf\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"ang\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"lyf\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"life\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"life\">"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "lyf"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English lyf"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "līf"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English līf"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gmw-pro",
        "3": "*līb"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *līb"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*lībą",
        "t": "life, body"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ine-pro",
        "3": "*leyp-",
        "t": "to stick, glue"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "sco",
        "2": "life"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots life"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "stq",
        "2": "Lieuw",
        "t": "body"
      },
      "expansion": "Saterland Frisian Lieuw (“body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "fy",
        "2": "liif",
        "t": "body"
      },
      "expansion": "West Frisian liif (“body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "cim",
        "2": "laip",
        "t": "body"
      },
      "expansion": "Cimbrian laip (“body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "lijf",
        "t": "body"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch lijf (“body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Leib",
        "t": "body; womb"
      },
      "expansion": "German Leib (“body; womb”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "nds",
        "2": "Lief",
        "t": "body; life"
      },
      "expansion": "Low German Lief (“body; life”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "lb",
        "2": "Leif"
      },
      "expansion": "Luxembourgish Leif"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "wym",
        "2": "łaowa",
        "t": "life"
      },
      "expansion": "Vilamovian łaowa (“life”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "yi",
        "2": "לײַב",
        "t": "body"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish לײַב (layb, “body”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "da,nb,nn,sv",
        "2": "liv",
        "t": "life; waist"
      },
      "expansion": "Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish liv (“life; waist”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "fo",
        "2": "lív",
        "t": "life"
      },
      "expansion": "Faroese lív (“life”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "is",
        "2": "líf",
        "t": "life"
      },
      "expansion": "Icelandic líf (“life”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "semantic loan",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "la-med",
        "3": "vīta",
        "nocap": "1",
        "t": "biography; hagiography"
      },
      "expansion": "semantic loan from Medieval Latin vīta (“biography; hagiography”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "etymon",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":inh",
        "3": "enm:lyf",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "Etymology tree\nProto-Indo-European *leyp-der.\nProto-Germanic *lībanąder.\nProto-Germanic *lībą\nProto-West Germanic *līb\nOld English līf\nMiddle English lyf\nEnglish life"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "*leyp-",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/leyp-"
    ],
    [
      "*lībaną",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/lībaną"
    ],
    [
      "*lībą",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/lībą"
    ],
    [
      "*līb",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/līb"
    ],
    [
      "līf",
      "lif#Old_English"
    ],
    [
      "lyf",
      "lyf#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "lyf",
      "lyf#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "līf",
      "lif#Old_English"
    ],
    [
      "*līb",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/līb"
    ],
    [
      "*lībą",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/lībą"
    ],
    [
      "*lībaną",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/lībaną"
    ],
    [
      "*leyp-",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/leyp-"
    ],
    [
      "life",
      "life#Scots"
    ],
    [
      "leif",
      "leif#Scots"
    ],
    [
      "Lieuw",
      "Lieuw#Saterland_Frisian"
    ],
    [
      "liif",
      "liif#West_Frisian"
    ],
    [
      "laip",
      "laip#Cimbrian"
    ],
    [
      "lijf",
      "lijf#Dutch"
    ],
    [
      "leven",
      "leven#Dutch"
    ],
    [
      "Leib",
      "Leib#German"
    ],
    [
      "Leben",
      "Leben#German"
    ],
    [
      "Lief",
      "Lief#Low_German"
    ],
    [
      "Leif",
      "Leif#Luxembourgish"
    ],
    [
      "Läif",
      "Läif#Luxembourgish"
    ],
    [
      "łaowa",
      "łaowa#Vilamovian"
    ],
    [
      "לײַב",
      "לײַב#Yiddish"
    ],
    [
      "Danish",
      "liv#Danish"
    ],
    [
      "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "liv#Norwegian_Bokmål"
    ],
    [
      "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "liv#Norwegian_Nynorsk"
    ],
    [
      "liv",
      "liv#Swedish"
    ],
    [
      "lív",
      "lív#Faroese"
    ],
    [
      "líf",
      "líf#Icelandic"
    ],
    [
      "belive",
      "belive#English"
    ],
    [
      "vīta",
      "vita#Latin"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "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.",
        "The status possessed by any of a number of entities, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and sometimes viruses, which have the properties of replication and metabolism.",
        "The animating principle or force that keeps an inorganic thing or concept metaphorically alive (dynamic, relevant, etc) and makes it a \"living document\", \"living constitution\", etc.",
        "Lifeforms, generally or collectively."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
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    },
    {
      "pos": "intj",
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of God's life (an oath)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ],
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      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 38375
    },
    {
      "pos": "verb",
      "glosses": [
        "To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "ec5c2a01ec5bcba85bfa93c6c01028eb248515eeeb1f997a7f219d9aad274c4f",
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  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 22,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

The source etymologies

Unnumbered source etymology

Relationships mentioned by the source

Where this record stops

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