travivaĵo

A through-lived-thing. That is what the parts say, and it is worth saying out loud once: tra is through, vivi at rank 76 is to live, and -aĵ- turns whatever it is stuck to into a concrete thing. So travivi is to live through something, and a travivaĵo is the something. Four morphemes, no new root, and a word English can only reach with a whole clause.

The fence with sperto. Sperto at rank 667 is experience in the accumulated sense: what you have got from years of doing the job, the thing an employer asks for. Travivaĵo is one specific thing that happened to you and that you came out the far side of. English uses experience for both, which is why the gloss on this page names the difference instead of repeating the word.

And with transvivi. Transvivi at rank 2,509 is to live across something, to come through it, and its object is an ordeal. The two roots overlap heavily and the difference is one of emphasis: travivi is about having been inside the thing, transvivi is about having got out. Ŝi travivis la militon says she lived through the war; ŝi transvivis la militon says she survived it.

Register. Most travivaĵoj are heavy: wars, illnesses, near misses. But the word is not restricted to disaster, and stranga travivaĵo for an odd afternoon is perfectly ordinary Esperanto. If it was pleasant and adventurous, aventuro is waiting at rank 1,570.