- Having a long life: a long-lived aunt.
- Lasting a long time; persistent: a long-lived rumor.
- Functioning a long time; durable: a long-lived light bulb.
[Middle English long-lifed : long, long; see long1 + life, life; see life + -ed, having; see -ed3.]
long-livedness long'-lived'ness n.WORD HISTORY Some uncertainty exists as to the correct pronunciation of long-lived. Should one say (lôngPRIMARY_STRESSlīvdPRIMARY_STRESS) or (lôngPRIMARY_STRESSlĭvdPRIMARY_STRESS)? The answer depends in part on how one looks at the word. Historically, the first pronunciation is the more accurate. The word was formed in Middle English times as a compound of long and the noun life, plus the suffix -ed. This suffix, though identical in form to the past tense suffix, has a different function: to form adjectives from nouns, as in the words hook-nosed, ruddy-faced, and round-shouldered. (Note that English has no verbs such as "to hook-nose," and "to ruddy-face," that would have formed participial adjectives ending in -ed.) In Middle English, the suffix -ed was always pronounced as a full syllable, so long-lifed (as it was then spelled) had three syllables. The f in the middle, by a rule of earlier English phonology, was voiced between the two vowels to (v); eventually, the spelling became long-lived to reflect the pronunciation. (We see the same alternation in life and lives; in Middle English, lives had two syllables just like -lived.) However, this new spelling introduced an ambiguity; it was no longer clear from the spelling that the word came from the noun life, but rather looked as though it came from the verb live. In this way a second pronunciation, (lôngPRIMARY_STRESSlĭvdPRIMARY_STRESS), was introduced.
