THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity

THE LIFE OF LIFE

11/5/2016

0 Comments

 
The word life has ancient and fascinating roots. Its first appearance was at an unspecified date in the antediluvian, hypothesized tongue of Proto-Indo-European, at which time it was pronounced something like leip and meant "sticky" or "glue".  Then as Proto-Indo-European evolved into many different languages, leip was adopted by Proto-German but changed to libam, meaning "longevity" and "perseverance" because they associated glue with long-lasting qualities. Later, as Proto-German became High German, the word libam was changed to lib, because who likes disyllabic words anyway? Around this time, the word also came to mean "the span of a human's existence" because it kind of got mangled around  that way.  Finally, in the 1200s, the English language took lib, changed it around to life because of the similar sound, and in the 1700s made it apply to inanimate objects as well. The 1800s and 1900s followed that up by making a bunch of life-related phrases, such as not on your life and lifejacket. Then they stuck happily ever after.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    AUTHOR

    Picture
    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic. You're looking at a super outdated page

    Archives

    December 2023
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    TAGS

    All
    Interview
    Satire

Picture
CONTACT: [email protected]
SUBSTACK • TIKTOK • INSTAGRAM • YOUTUBE
I do not have a facebook account that's an impostor
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity