Etymograph

English

revive

Revive comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- ‘to live’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷeyh₃-1‘to live’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500reviven1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1524revive1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English revive
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1524, John Froissart [i.e.: “[W]hẽ [when] he ſaw the lord de la vale…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷeyh₃-Wiktionary, English revive‘to live’root named by Wiktionary · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500revivenWiktionary, English revive
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1524reviveWiktionary, English revive. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1524, John Froissart [i.e.: “[W]hẽ [when] he ſaw the lord de la vale…”

The story

The verb is derived from Late Middle English reviven, revyven (‘to recover from illness; to regain consciousness; to return to life after death; to happen again, recur; to be rejuvenated, renewed; (figurative) to bring back; (alchemy) of a metal: to be restored to its original form’), from Anglo-Norman reviver, revivre (‘to return to life after death; to rejuvenate, renew; to make (a law or legal document) valid again’), Middle French revivre, and Old French revivre (‘to return to life after death; to rejuvenate, renew’) (modern French revivre), and directly from their etymon Latin revīvere, the present active infinitive of revīvō (‘to live again’), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + vīvō (‘to be alive, survive; to live’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (‘to live’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- ‘to live’

quick, biology, couch, vital, kidney, vitamin, hygiene, viable, zodiac, vivid, 68 more

Today it means

verb To cause (a person or animal) to recover from a faint; to cause (a person or animal) to return to a state of consciousness.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “revive”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- / revive

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