life (English)

Where does "life" come from?

Used as an oath shortening 'God's life', the interjection 'life' comes from the Middle English noun 'lyf'[1][3], inherited from Old English 'līf'[1][3]. This descends via Proto-West Germanic '*līb' from Proto-Germanic '*lībą', which meant 'life' or 'body'[1][3]. Linguists trace the Germanic root to '*lībaną', meaning 'to remain' or 'to stay', which in turn stems from the Proto-Indo-European root '*leyp-', meaning 'to stick' or 'to glue'[1][5].

Open questions

The development of Proto-Germanic '*lībaną' from Proto-Indo-European '*leyp-' displays an unexpected voiced consonant, which may reflect back-formation from another verb such as '*libjaną'. [9]
An alternative derivation proposes that Proto-Germanic '*lībaną' might instead come from Proto-Indo-European '*leykʷ-', meaning 'to leave' or 'to remain'. [9]
The Proto-Indo-European root '*leyp-' is often conjectured to be an extended form of '*ley-' or '*(s)ley-', which meant 'to slip' or 'slimy'. [6]

Full etymology tree

life (English), 'Synonym of God's life (an oath).'
- inherited lyf (Middle English), 'life'
  - inherited lif (Old English), 'life'
    - inherited *līb (Proto-West Germanic), 'body'
      - inherited *lībą (Proto-Germanic), 'body'
        derived *lībaną (Proto-Germanic), 'to remain, to be left'
- semantic loan vita (Latin), 'life'

Ancestors

*leyp- (Proto-Indo-European)
lyf (Middle English)
lif (Old English)
*līb (Proto-West Germanic)
*lībą (Proto-Germanic)
vita (Latin)

Cognates and doublets

laip (Cimbrian)
lijf (Dutch)
lív (Faroese)
Leib (German)
líf (Icelandic)
Lief (Low German)
Leif (Luxembourgish)
Lieuw (Saterland Frisian)
liv (Swedish)
łaowa (Vilamovian)
liif (West Frisian)
לײַב (Yiddish)

Related words

swearing (English)

Sources

Updated October 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris