longevity

English

Alternative forms

• longævity (archaic)

Etymology

Early 17th century, learned borrowing from Latin longaevitās, from longaevus (“ancient, aged”) +‎ -itās. The first part is related with English long and this association led to the alternative pronunciation with /ŋ/.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɒnˈd͡ʒɛv.ɪ.ti/, /lɒŋ-/

  • Audio (Southern England); /lɒnˈd͡ʒɛv.ɪ.ti/:

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England); /lɒŋˈd͡ʒɛv.ɪ.ti/:

    (file)

• (dialects, US, lot–cloth split) IPA^(key): /lɔnˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti/, [lɔ̃nˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti], /lɔŋˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti/, [lɔ̃ŋˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti]
• (General American, cot–caught merger, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /lɑnˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti/, [lɑ̃nˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ɾi]
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /lɒnˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ti/, [lɒŋˈd͡ʒɛv.ə.ɾi]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /lɔnˈd͡ʒev.ə.ti/, [lɔnˈd͡ʒev.ə.ɾi]
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /lɒnˈd͡ʒev.ə.ti/, [lɒnˈd͡ʒev.ə.ɾi]

Noun

longevity (countable and uncountable, plural longevities)

2. The quality of being long-lasting, especially of life.

   Grandpa had incredible longevity: he lived to be 105 years old!

   • 2020 July 1, David Allen, “Signalling from Leeds along the S&C”, in Rail, page 74:

     This 142-year-old tiny ex-LNWR SB [signal box, at Batley] is an amazing survivor, probably owing its longevity to its location alongside a level crossing. Indeed it started life as a gate box with the delightful name of Lady Ann's Crossing.

   • 2024 June 2, Parija Kavilanz, “‘Swicy’ is the hottest trend in food right now”, in CNN‎:

     The longevity of spicy and swicy will depend on how committed consumers are to sticking with these flavors as they grow older.

4. Duration over time; persistence.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 255:

     A ‘postdating’ is an example of the use of a lexical item at a later date than currently recorded and these are important in establishing the longevity of use of a term and whether or not it has become obsolete.

Synonyms

• long-livedness
• permanence

Derived terms

• longevity noodle
• longevity peach
• prolongevity
• shortgevity

Related terms

• longevous

Translations

the quality of being long-lasting, especially of life

Armenian: please add this translation if you can Belarusian: даўгале́цце n (dawhaljéccje) Bulgarian: дълголетие (bg) n (dǎlgoletie) Catalan: longevitat f Chinese: Mandarin: 長壽 / 长寿 (zh) (chángshòu) Czech: dlouhověkost (cs) f Dutch: levensduur (nl) m Esperanto: longviveco Estonian: pikaealisus Finnish: pitkäikäisyys (fi) French: longévité (fr) f Galician: lonxevidade (gl) f Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: Langlebigkeit (de) f, lange Lebensdauer (de) f Greek: μακροζωία (el) f (makrozoḯa) Ancient: μακροβίωσις f (makrobíōsis) Hungarian: hosszú élet Indonesian: panjang umur (id) Irish: buaine f, fadsaolaí f Italian: longevità (it) Japanese: 寿命 (ja) (じゅみょう, jumyō), 長寿 (ja) (ちょうじゅ, chōju), 不老不死 (ja) (ふろうふし, furōfushi) Khmer: អាយុវែង (ʼaayuʼ vɛɛng), ទីឃាយុភាព (tiikhiəyuphiəp) Korean: 장수(長壽) (ko) (jangsu) Latin: longaevitās f Maori: mauriroa Mizo: damreina, daihreina, tlona Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Polish: długowieczność (pl) f Portuguese: longevidade f Romanian: longevitate (ro) f Russian: долголе́тие (ru) n (dolgolétije), долгожи́тельство (ru) n (dolgožítelʹstvo) Spanish: longevidad (es) f Thai: please add this translation if you can Tibetan: ཚེ་རིང་པོ (tshe ring po) Turkish: uzun ömürlülük Ukrainian: довголі́ття n (dovholíttja), довгожи́тельство n (dovhožýtelʹstvo) Vietnamese: sự sống lâu, tuổi thọ cao Welsh: hirhoedledd m

References

• “longevity”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.