-lived

[Joanne M. Despres]

On 15 Oct 2002, at 13:12, Peter Richardson wrote:

> This morning on NPR Bob Edwards said "long-lived" with a diphthong [ai] in
> the second element rather than what one usually hears as [I] (woops:
> that's not an ell, but a small capital eye). In doing so, he won my
> gratitude as an ally in a lonely (and perhaps futile or even utterly
> misguided) battle for the understanding of what "-lived" means. I take it
> to mean 'having a life,' i.e. 'having a long life,' which would justify
> the [ai] pronunciation. When I was a tad I always pronounced the _-lived_
> as I did _lived_, but then one day I changed forever when I heard my
> father say "short-lived" to rhyme with, um, "multi-wived" (for lack
> of a better example). Did anyone else hear this pronunciation by Bob
> Edwards and thus resolve to renew immediately that NPR membership during
> this nagging, money-hustling week?
>
> Peter R.

I didn't actually hear that part of the broadcast, but I do remember
having the long-i pronunciation drummed into me by an English
teacher in high school.  Apparently "long-lived" isn't entered in the
M-W usage book, though, which leads me to wonder how
widespread the taboo over the short-i pronunciation is.  I see your
point that the "-lived" component does not represent a past
participal form historically -- not that it necessarily matters to most
English speakers, who probably see "lived" and pronounce it the
way it would would be pronounced in the vast majority of other
contexts.  I'm not sure whether that would be classified as folk
etymology or some other phenomenon (leveling?).

Anyway, both prons are in the Collegiate, for what it's worth.

Joanne Despres
Merriam-Webster