FromMiddle Englishbeliven, fromOld Englishbelīfan(“to remain”), fromProto-West Germanic*bilīban, fromProto-Germanic*bilībaną(“to remain”), fromProto-Germanic*bi- +Proto-Indo-European*leyp-(“to stick, glue”).
Cognate withWest Frisianbliuwe(“to stay”),Dutchblijven(“to remain”),Germanbleiben(“to remain”),Danishblive(“to be, remain”). More atleave.
belive (third-person singular simple presentbelives,present participlebeliving,simple pastbelove,past participlebeliven)
- (intransitive, dialectal, otherwise obsolete) Toremain,stay.
- 1843 (original date:1475), Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Tyrwhitt,The Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer - Page 321:
- [...] God helpe me so, the best is thus to done. “Rise, let us speake of lustie life in Troy That we have lad, and forth the time drive, And eke of time coming us rejoy, That bringen shall our blisse now toblive, [...]"
- 1900 (original date:1483), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis,The golden legend, or, Lives of the saints:
- So therebleveth no more, but I that am servant to the spirit, may lie down and die. In which death I glorify myself, but I am greatly troubled in my mind, that my riches which I had ordained to God be wasted and spent in foul things.
FromMiddle Englishbilive(“actively, vigorously, eagerly, gladly, quickly, at once”), withsyncopated alternative formblive. The adverb is from a contraction ofby /bi +live(dative form oflyf, "life"), literally, "by life".
belive (comparativemorebelive,superlativemostbelive)
- (obsolete outside Scotland)Quickly,forthwith.
- (dialectal, chiefly Scotland)Soon,presently, before long;by and by;anon
