Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of postvivi
Coloured illustration of postvivi
#1868 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to survive, to outlive

Word origin

Built inside Esperanto from post ('after') and vivi ('to live'), so literally to live after. The pattern is the same one German uses in uberleben and Dutch in overleven.

Origin
Esperanto compound
Root
post + vivi

Examples

.

She outlived all her brothers.

.

Only one house survived the war.

.

Those words will outlive us all.

This one is a real build, and a transparent one: post plus vivi, to live after. Main root last, as always, so the thing being described is a kind of living. Once you see it, the whole family opens up without a dictionary: postvivanto is a survivor, postvivo is the afterlife or the continued existence of a thing, and travivi (to live through) is the near neighbour that means experiencing an event rather than outlasting it.

is transitive, and this is where learners slip. You survive something, and that something takes -n: , . There is no reflexive here and no preposition: is not Esperanto.

is the common alternative and the two overlap heavily. Where writers separate them, leans towards getting through an ordeal and towards outlasting somebody or something, which is why an obituary uses and a shipwreck story reaches for . Either will be understood.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

postvivi: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "postvivi" (to survive, to outlive): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 38.