From PIE *leyp- 'to persist', Old English līf named the force that makes living things cling to existence — a root also preserved in the very organ once thought to sustain it.
The condition that distinguishes living organisms from inorganic matter, marked by growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli. Also used broadly to mean one's existence or the animate world.
From Old English līf, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (life, body), from PIE *leyp- meaning 'to remain, to persist, to stick, to adhere.' The semantic evolution from 'sticking, remaining' to 'living' reflects the ancient conceptualization of life as persistence — the quality of remaining attached to the world rather than passing away. The same PIE root *leyp- produced Old English lifer (liver), the organ that ancient Germanic peoples