vivacious

English

WOTD – 7 August 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vīvāx (“lively, vigorous”) (with the suffix -ious), from vīvere (“to live”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaɪˈveɪʃəs/, /vɪˈveɪʃəs/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

Adjective

vivacious (comparative more vivacious, superlative most vivacious)

1. Lively and animated; full of life and energy.
   • 1858, W. E. Gladstone, Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age, volume 2, Oxford University Press, pages 459–460:

     Thus then society is not arranged in clans, but in tribes, united by the general sense of a common name, a common abode, a common history, a common religion, and a remote sense of a common tribal stock, without any sense of personal affinity in each individual case. Again, it is curious to observe that the xenial relation was not less vivacious than that of blood.

   • 1999, David Weber, Echoes of Honor, Baen Publishing Enterprises, →ISBN:

     Given the vivacious young redhead's attractiveness, some might have assumed he had more than simply professional reasons for sheepdogging her career, but they would have been wrong. He'd seen something in her ...

2. (obsolete) Long-lived.
3. (rare) Difficult to kill.

Synonyms

• (lively and animated): animated, bubbly, ebullient, high-spirited, lively, vibrant, exciting, effervescent

Derived terms

• vivaciousness

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷeyh₃- (0 c, 33 e)

Translations

lively and animated

• Bulgarian: жив (bg) (živ), оживен (bg) (oživen)
• Catalan: vivaç
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 活潑 / 活泼 (zh) (huópo), 精神 (zh) (jīngshen)

• Czech: čilý (cs), čiperný, živý (cs)
• Dutch: levendig (nl)
• Finnish: eloisa (fi), pirteä (fi)
• French: vivace (fr)
• Galician: vivaz
• Georgian: ცოცხალი (cocxali), ცხოველი (ka) (cxoveli), სიცოცხლისმოყვარული (sicocxlismoq̇varuli), მხიარული (mxiaruli)
• German: lebhaft (de)
• Irish: móraigeanta
• Italian: vivace (it)
• Latin: vīvāx
• Latvian: spirgts, žirgts, možs, mundrs
• Macedonian: жив (živ), ве́сел (vésel), по́движен (pódvižen)
• Maori: ngangahau
• Ottoman Turkish: دینج (dinc)
• Persian: سرزنده (fa) (sarzende)
• Portuguese: vivaz (pt)
• Russian: живо́й (ru) (živój), оживлённый (ru) (oživljónnyj), жизнерадостный (ru) (žizneradostnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: živahan (sh)
• Spanish: vivaz (es)
• Swedish: livfull (sv), livlig (sv)
• Turkish: hayat dolu (tr)

long-lived

• Bulgarian: дълговечен (bg) (dǎlgovečen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 長命 / 长命 (zh) (chángmìng), 長久 / 长久 (zh) (chángjiǔ)

• Finnish: pitkäikäinen
• Georgian: მრავალწლიანი (mravalc̣liani)
• German: langlebig (de)
• Latin: vīvāx
• Macedonian: долго́вечен (dolgóvečen)
• Russian: многоле́тний (ru) (mnogolétnij)
• Serbo-Croatian: dugovječan (sh), dugovjek (sh)
• Spanish: vivaz (es)

difficult to kill

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 很難殺死 / 很难杀死 (hěn nán shāsǐ)

• Czech: vytrvalý (cs)
• Finnish: sitkeähenkinen (fi)
• German: langlebig (de)
• Latin: vīvāx
• Macedonian: жи́лав (žílav), и́здржлив (ízdržliv)
• Russian: живучий (ru) (živučij)

Further reading

• “vivacious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “vivacious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “vivacious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.