survival

English

Etymology

From survive +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɚˈvaɪvəl/

Noun

survival (countable and uncountable, plural survivals)

1. The fact or act of surviving; continued existence or life.

   His survival in the open ocean was a miracle; he had fully expected to die.

2. (as a modifier) Of, relating to or aiding survival.

   His survival kit had all the things he needed in the wilderness.

3. (sports) The avoidance of relegation or demotion to a lower league or division.
   • 2000, Dan Goldstein, The Rough Guide to English Football: A Fans' Handbook 2000-2001:

     […] a team that have turned snatching relegation from the jaws of top-flight survival into an art form […]

   • 2013, Alan Stubbs, How Football Saved My Life, page 139:

     "Before you know it, you find yourself flirting around the relegation places and the season becomes a battle for survival."

4. (anthropology) A custom or belief that persists in folklore from earlier times, when the rationale behind it is forgotten.
   • 1894, James William Black, “Savagery and survivals”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 45, page 391:

     Another survival of marriage by capture is discovered among the Ceylonese, where it is common at royal marriages for the king and queen to throw perfumed balls and squirt scented water at each other.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Phase the First: The Maiden, chapter 2:

     The banded ones were all dressed in white gowns — a gay survival from Old Style days, when cheerfulness and May-time were synonyms — days before the habit of taking long views had reduced emotions to a monotonous average.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• survival analysis
• survivalism
• survival kit
• survival of the fittest

• survival rate
• survival skill
• survival value

Translations

continued existence or life

• Catalan: supervivència f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生存 (zh) (shēngcún)

• Czech: přežití n
• Dutch: overleven (nl) n, overleving (nl) f
• Finnish: eloonjääminen, selviytyminen (fi)
• French: survie (fr) f
• Galician: supervivencia f
• German: Überleben n
• Greek: επιβίωση (el) f (epivíosi)
• Hungarian: túlélés
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: maireachtáil
• Italian: sopravvivenza (it) f
• Japanese: 生存 (ja) (せいぞん, seizon), サバイバル (sabaibaru)
• Portuguese: sobrevivência (pt) f
• Romanian: supraviețuire (ro) f
• Russian: выжива́ние (ru) n (vyživánije)
• Spanish: supervivencia (es) f
• Tagalog: lighay
• Walloon: sorvicaedje (wa) m
• Yiddish: קיום m (kiyem)

persistent custom or belief

• German: Relikt (de) n, Überbleibsel (de) n, Überlebsel n, Überrest (de) m
• Japanese: 残存 (ja) (ざんぞん, zanzon), 遺物 (いぶつ, ibutsu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: пережи́ток (ru) m (perežítok)

Further reading

• “survival”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “survival”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.