“short-lived” and “long-lived”

[frogmarch]

Whenever I’ve heard “short-lived” or “long-lived” pronounced with a short “i” as the past tense of the verb “live” is, it has sounded wrong. I’ve always thought the “i” in “-lived” should be pronounced with a long “i” (-lyved.)

It finally occurred to me to Google it.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19960717

Mike Forester writes:

The mispronunciation of "short-lived" by practically everyone, esp. nitwits on TV, is one of my longest-lived pet peeves. It has a long "i", of course, because it's an adjectival form of "life," not of "live." It's always seemed obvious to me: He had a short temper; he was short-tempered. He had a short life; he was short-lived. Care to join my campaign to stamp out "short-livd"?

Reply:

Well, no, because it's almost certainly a losing battle.

Etymologically, you are correct. The "-lived" in short-lived (or long-lived, for that matter) comes from life, noun, + the adjectival ending -ed. The f turns to a v the same way it happens in the leaf leaves pair. "-lived" should therefore be pronounced with a vowel rhyming with "eye." The problem is that lived, the past tense of the verb "to live," is tremendously more common, so people often pronounce the "-lived" adjective as if it were the verb "lived."

(Edited for clarity)

[loli phabay]

1. Too much time on your hands and a wierd brain worm to boot.

[turtlerescue1]

2. I'm speechless but thats short lived, but not for long.