Is short lived one word

ChrisChris

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Both short and long i are acceptable. AHD gives the following usage note:

The pronunciation (-laɪvd) is etymologically correct since the compound is derived from the noun life, rather than from the verb live. But the pronunciation (-lɪvd) is by now so common that it cannot be considered an error. In the most recent survey 43 percent of the Usage Panel preferred (-lɪvd), 39 percent preferred (-laɪvd), and 18 percent found both pronunciations equally acceptable.

Wiktionary agrees with that usage. Other dictionaries (Wordnik, Dictionary.com) list both pronunciations without comment.

Personally, I almost always use the short i like in ‘give’.

(I’d give the two pronunciations slightly different connotations, something like short-i = it was around for a short time and it’s already dead/gone, long-i = it’s still around but won’t be for long.)

answered Nov 16, 2010 at 19:30

Evidence for the long I pronunciation is in Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance”:

To gain a brief advantage you’ve contrived,
But your proud triumph will not be long-lived

Since, as far as I know contrived was never pronounced with a short I. It was written over a hundred years ago and in song, but Gilbert was a clever rhymer and most of his work sounds like (fairly) normal speech apart from the invented words (like piratical).

Adding my $.02 after these many months:

I, for one, pronounce these expressions with a long i. My argument is that if something has a long life it is long-lived. The vocalization of the f sound to make it v doesn’t mean we need to consider the word to be derived from the verb «live»; instead it is from the noun life. We don’t use a short i when we we say a cat has nine lives, we use the long version.

Think of the parallel with knife. If someone is attacked with a sharp knife, you would say it was a «sharp-knived attack.» If a cat truly had nine lives, it would be nine-lived (long i).

That said, I’m sure the other usage will eventually rid the world of us «long-lived» (with a long i) speakers, since we are only long-lived and not immortal.

answered Jun 7, 2011 at 18:30

DustyDusty

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answered Aug 29, 2011 at 22:57

answered Jun 5, 2014 at 18:09

As further evidence in favor of the long-I pronunciation, I offer two points to show that «lived» is derived from the noun life rather than the verb (to) live.

First, the phrase is analogous to common phrases such as red-handed, pointy-eared, wide-eyed, long-winded and short-haired. These phrases may be seen as participial phrases where X + ed is derived from a noun phrase X, reanalyzed as a verb meaning «having X» used in its past participial form to function as an adjective. An example of this using a single noun rather than a noun phrase is a lidded pot. On the contrary, there is no analogous verb-derived construction. If someone has slept for a long time, we do not say that the person is *long-slept, nor do we form such a phrase with an adverb and say that a person who has walked for a short time is *shortly-walked.

Second, there is the question of the unvoiced f in life becoming v in long-lived. This happens frequently, as in half (noun) and halve (verb). It can also happen when a singular noun is pluralized, as in knife (singular) and knives (plural). It also happens with consonants other than f and v. Examples include s, where the difference is not usually reflected in spelling, as in house (noun, /haʊs/) and house (verb, /haʊz/). There are also other examples where this is accompanied by a change in the vowel, including bath (noun) and bathe (verb).

answered Jun 3, 2020 at 15:22

I am not yet convinced of the long-I version. And, incidentally, the argument that long-lived is related to life doesn’t wash for me. It may be related, but so is the simple word live, which has the long I as an adjective (as in «live bait» or a «live broadcast»), but short I as a verb («We all live in this house.»). If I live a long time, I am probably long-lived (short I).

The «knife» example doesn’t help either, as this word always sports a long I (knife/knives/knifed/knived).

rogermuerogermue

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answered Dec 17, 2013 at 23:04

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shortlived

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∙ 10y ago

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