lyven

Middle English

Alternative forms

• leeve, lefe, leve, leven, libbe, libben, lifen, live, liven, lybbe, lyve
• (Early ME) libbæn, libbenn, livie, livien, luvien

Etymology

From Old English libban, lifian, from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, from Proto-Germanic *libjaną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlivən/
• (mainly Northern) IPA^(key): /ˈleːvən/

Verb

lyven (third-person singular simple present lyveth, present participle lyvende, lyvynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle lyved)

1. (intransitive) To live (be alive or extant)
2. (intransitive) To live (survive, continue living)
   • c. 1368, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, as recorded c. 1440–1450 in Bodleian Library MS. Fairfax 16, folio 130r:

     I Haue grete wonder, be this lyghte / How that I lyve, for day ne nyghte / I may nat slepe, wel nygh noght

     I greatly wonder by this light / How it is that I’m alive, for whether it’s day or night / I can hardly sleep at all.

3. (intransitive, of inanimate objects and abstractions) To persist; to continue to exist.
4. (intransitive) To reside or dwell; to live (somewhere).
5. (intransitive) To live (in a certain way or condition)
6. (intransitive, with various prepositions) To subsist or live on.
7. (transitive) To live as (something), to exist as, to live the life of.

Conjugation

Conjugation of lyven (weak in -ed)

infinitive	(to) lyven, lyve, libben, libbe
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	lyve	lyved
2nd-person singular	lyvest	lyvedest
3rd-person singular	lyveth	lyved
subjunctive singular	lyve
imperative singular		—
plural1	lyven, lyve	lyveden, lyvede
imperative plural	lyveth, lyve	—
participles	lyvynge, lyvende	lyved, ylyved

¹ Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Descendants

• English: live
• Scots: leeve
• Yola: live

References

• “liven, v.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.