Where does “survivor” come from?
Survivor comes from Old French survivre, from Latin supervīvere meaning to live beyond or outlast, formed from super meaning over and the Proto-Indo-European root gʷeih₃w- meaning to live.
survivor (English): One who survives, especially one who survives a...
Definitions
- One who survives, especially one who survives a...
Ancestry of “survivor”, step by step
survivor traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English survive
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | survive | Of a person, to continue to live; to remain... |
| 2 | Latin | supervīvō | to outlive |
| 3 | Latin | super- | super-; over, above |
| 4 | Latin | super | "accusative" above, on the top of, upon;... |
| 5 | Latin | eks-uper | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | upéri | alternative reconstruction of *upér |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | upér | above; over |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | upó | under, below |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃ewp- | — |
via English ‐or
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | ‐or | Creates an agent noun, often from a verb, indicating a person or object (often machines or parts of them) that do the verb or part of speech with which they are formed |
| 2 | Middle English | -our | — |
| 3 | Old French | -eor | Alternative form of -or |
| 4 | Latin | -ator | -ator, -er; second-person singular future passive... |
| 5 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | Forms agent nouns to verb stems |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |