Post #1437700
2026-04-10 17:43 UTC
It will come as no surprise that ‘to live’ is etymologically related to ‘life’ and ‘alive’.
However, these words are also related to ‘to leave’ and German ‘bleiben’ (“to stay”), which used to have an English cognate: ‘to belive’.
Even ‘lipo-’ in ‘liposuction’ is related, as are the parts ‘-lev-’ and ‘-lv-’ of the numerals ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’.
All of these words stem from a common Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to stick”.
Click my new graphic to learn all about this word family:
Replies (6)
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@JensJot@mas.to 2026-04-10 18:23
@yvanspijk One day, while I’m looking at one of your infographics, my eyeballs will just pop out of their sockets because it’s all just SO fascinating!!
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@bartavi@mastodon.nl 2026-04-10 18:42
@yvanspijk I am a bit confused on how it went from 'to stay' to 'to leave'. The meaning switched to the complete opposite?
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@PeterPractice@toot.community 2026-04-10 18:43
@yvanspijk I look in the mirror and realise: Das Fett bleibt auf meinem Leib.
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@jankatins@fosstodon.org 2026-04-10 19:24
@yvanspijk so "cling to life" is now similar to the mountain with the name which basically means mountain 4 times or so?
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@klefstadmyr@social.vivaldi.net 2026-04-11 08:34
@yvanspijk Today I learnt a new Norwegian Nynorsk ord: å bliva. I had to look it up, but it is, of course, in the dictionary.
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@klefstadmyr@social.vivaldi.net 2026-04-11 10:57
@yvanspijk And now I'm trying to pronounce V with both lips.