Dictionary

belive en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• [bəˈlaɪ̯v] weak vowel merger
• /bəˈlaɪ̯v/ weak vowel merger
• [bɪˈlaɪ̯v] weak vowel distinction
• /bɪˈlaɪ̯v/ weak vowel distinction

Etymology

From Middle English beliven, from Old English belīfan (“to remain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bilīban, from Proto-Germanic *bilībaną (“to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- + Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick, glue”). Cognate with West Frisian bliuwe (“to stay”), Dutch blijven (“to remain”), German bleiben (“to remain”), Danish blive (“to be, remain”). More at leave.

Meanings

1. (dialectal, intransitive, qualifier:otherwise obsolete) To remain, stay.
   • So there bleveth no more, but I that am servant to the spirit, may lie down and die. In which death I glorify myself, but I am greatly troubled in my mind, that my riches which I had ordained to God be wasted and spent in foul things. 1900 (original date: 1483), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis, The golden legend, or, Lives of the saints
   • … God helpe me so, the best is thus to done. “Rise, let us speake of lustie life in Troy That we have lad, and forth the time drive, And eke of time coming us rejoy, That bringen shall our blisse now to blive, …" 1843 (original date: 1475), Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Tyrwhitt, The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer - Page 321

Forms

Relateds

belave · beleave

Translations (2)

ru остава́ться (to remain, stay) · de bleiben (to remain, stay)

belive en · ADV · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• [bəˈlaɪ̯v] weak vowel merger
• /bəˈlaɪ̯v/ weak vowel merger
• [bɪˈlaɪ̯v] weak vowel distinction
• /bɪˈlaɪ̯v/ weak vowel distinction

Etymology

From Middle English bilive (“actively, vigorously, eagerly, gladly, quickly, at once”), with syncopated alternative form blive. The adverb is from a contraction of by /bi + live (dative form of lyf, "life"), literally, "by life".

Meanings

1. (qualifier:obsolete outside Scotland) Quickly, forthwith.
   • By that same way the direfull dames doe driue / Their mournefull charet, fild with rusty blood, / And downe to Plutoes house are come biliue [...]. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
2. (Scotland, dialectal) Soon, presently, before long; by and by; anon

Forms