Etymograph

English

life

Life comes from Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *lībą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lībą‘life’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līb‘body’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150līf
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lyf
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588life

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*lībą‘life’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*līb‘body’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150līf
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500lyf
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588life

Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “My bloodleſſe bodie waxeth chill and colde, And with…”

The story

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

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *leyp- ‘to stick, glue’

live, living, eleventh, lib, lipid, lipa, 16 more

through Proto-Germanic *lībaną ‘to remain, stay, be left’

leave, twelve, eleven, lave, 10 more

through Old English līf

alive, lively, 2 more

Today it means

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.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *lībą / life

Shirt and support for this word