Etymograph

English

vive

Vive comes from Latin vivus ‘alive, living’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- ‘to live’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷeyh₃-1‘to live’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷih₃wós1‘alive’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gʷīwos1‘alive, living’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvivus2‘alive, living’
  5. Englishtodayvive2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin vivus
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English vive

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷeyh₃-Wiktionary, Latin vivus‘to live’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷih₃wósWiktionary, Latin vivus‘alive’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*gʷīwosWiktionary, Latin vivus‘alive, living’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvivusWiktionary, English vive‘alive, living’
  5. EnglishtodayviveWiktionary, English vive

Linked words

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

biology, kidney, hygiene, vitamin, viable, zodiac, vitality, anaerobic, quicken, quickness, quicksilver, biogenesis, wyvern, 58 more

through Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós ‘alive’

quick, couch, vital, vivid, vivacious, convivial, vivacity, 33 more

Today it means

adj lively, animated

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “vive”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin vivus. 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- / vive

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