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living

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlɪvɪŋ/
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪvɪŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English livynge, libbyng, livinde, livand, livende, libbinde, libbende, from Old English lifiġende, lifiende, libbende, from Proto-West Germanic *libbjandī, from Proto-Germanic *libjandz (“living”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), equivalent to live +‎ -ing. Cognate with West Frisian libbend (“living”), Dutch levend (“living”), German lebend (“living”), Swedish levande (“living”), Icelandic lifandi (“living”).

Verb

living

  1. present participle of live

Adjective

living (not comparable)

  1. Having life; alive.
    a living, breathing child
    Respect for the dead does not preclude respect for the living.
    • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page ix:
      It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.
  2. In use or existing.
    Hunanese is a living language.
    • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
      The cab pulled up in front of a tumbledown cheap ‘villa’ in an unfinished cheap neighbourhood, — the whole place a living monument of the defeat of the speculative builder.
  3. True to life.
    This is the living image of Fidel Castro.
  4. Of rock or stone, existing in its original state and place.
  5. Continually updated; not static
    HTML is a living standard.
  6. Used as an intensifier.
    He almost beat the living daylights out of me.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

From Middle English livynge, libbynge, equivalent to live +‎ -ing. Cognate with Middle Dutch levinge, (whence Dutch leving (“way of life, living”)), Middle Low German lēvinge (“living”).

Noun

living (countable and uncountable, plural livings)

  1. (uncountable) The state of being alive.
  2. Financial means; a means of maintaining life; livelihood
    it's a living
    What do you do for a living?
    • 1983 December 10, Jolanta Benal, “The Second Revolution”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 21, page 14:
      Career opportunity […] is the one who never knocks — especially not on the doors of women, who are still hooking, housewifing and hairdressing for their livings.
  3. A style of life.
    plain living
    The National Brewing Company declared that the Chesapeake Bay region was the Land of Pleasant Living.
  4. (with "the") Those who are alive: living people.
    Synonym: (archaic) quick
    Antonyms: dead; (polite) deceased, departed
    in the land of the living
    Glad to see you're still among the living! [good-humored greeting]
    Some say that the spirits of the departed walk among the living, though most of us do not see them.
  5. (canon law) A position in a church (usually the Church of England) that has attached to it a source of income; an ecclesiastical benefice.
    • 1616, Henry Spelman, De Non Temerandis Ecclesijs [Churches Not to Be Violated]. A Tract of the Rights and Respect Due unto Churches. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Iohn Beale, →OCLC, pages 2–3:
      A Rectory or Parſonage, is a Spirituall liuing, compoſed of Land, Tythe, and other Oblations of the people, ſeparate or dedicate to God in any Congregation, for the ſeruice of his Church there, and for the maintenance of the Gouernour or Miniſter thereof, to vvhoſe charge the ſame is committed.
    • 2015, GR Evans, Edward Hicks: Pacifist Bishop at War:
      The patron of the living who had the right to nominate a particular priest might make the choice, but the living was actually granted by the local bishop.
Derived terms
Translations
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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French living or, less plausibly, an independent truncated borrowing from English living room.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlɪ.vɪŋ/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪvɪŋ
  • Hyphenation: li‧ving

Noun

living m (plural livings)

  1. (Belgium) living room
    Synonyms: huiskamer, woonkamer

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English living (room).

Pronunciation

Noun

living m (plural livings)

  1. living room

Further reading

Italian

Etymology

Pseudo-anglicism, a clipping of English living room.

Noun

living m

  1. living room
    Synonym: soggiorno

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from English living-room.

Noun

living n (plural livinguri)

  1. living room

Declension

More information singular, plural ...
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Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English living (room).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈlibin/ [ˈli.β̞ĩn]
  • Rhymes: -ibin

Noun

living m (plural livings)

  1. (Rioplatense, Chile) living room
    Synonym: sala de estar

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

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