Other forms: survived, surviving, survives
To survive is to stay alive through danger or disaster. Survive the crash, survive the winter, only two survived.
It takes a direct object with no preposition — survive the fire, not survive from it. It also means to outlive somebody: she is survived by two sons, which is the standard obituary formula. Of a thing it means lasting: few of the records survive. Note survivor, survival; and that survive is Latin for living beyond, from super plus vivere.
1verbsurviveTo stay alive through danger or disaster.
“Nobody expected him to survive the crash, but he walked out of hospital a month later.”
2verboutliveTo outlive somebody, or to last.
“Only a few letters from the poet survive today.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
survive is a staying alive.
Latin supervivere is super, beyond, plus vivere, to live. Vivid, revive and vital come from the same living.
Old French
survivre
Anglo-Norman
survivre
Latin
supervivo
English, today
survive
Built from
From Latin supervivo. From Anglo-Norman survivre, Old French survivre, from Latin supervivo (“to outlive”), from Latin super (“over”) + vivere (“to live”), akin to vita (“life”). See vivid. Compare devive, revive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA