Outliven

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To remain alive longer than another person or thing, surviving well beyond when they cease to exist
2. To live through or beyond a particular event, person, or time period that would otherwise mark an end
3. To endure and persist in living after something or someone else has died or ended

Etymology: "Outliven" is built from "out," which here means "beyond" or "more than," and "liven," an older form of "live." Put together, it means to go on living longer than someone or something else. The "-en" ending is the infinitive marker that many English verbs once carried, and it has since been dropped from the standard form, which is now "outlive." The sense of surviving a rival or a generation is built into the prefix. "Out-" often means "surpassing" in English, as in "outrun," "outdo," or "outnumber," so an outlived object or person is one that has been left behind in time. The sentence that most readers will know it from is a story of someone who lasts past a rival, a fashion, or a whole era.

Synonyms: outlive