vivify — this is a verb meaning to give life to or to endow with life; to animate something
vivificar — this is the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
In my 30 years of teaching high school Spanish, I will honestly tell you that I did not teach the word “vivificar;” however, I did teach the verb “vivir.”
Hopefully, you see the similarity between “vivificar” and “vivir.” “Vivificar” means to animate with life, like I mentioned above. “Vivir” means “to live.” It’s a very simple, yet very important and useful, verb.
When learning Spanish, you will come across the verb “vivir” very early in your lessons, and you will use the verb quite often. Usually, my students wouldn’t see any connection between “vivir” and any English word until I pointed them out, and you might not either, unless you look a little.
One of those connections is clear with the cognate duo seen above. Granted, “vivify” isn’t a commonly used English word, but that’s the point of this newsletter — to get you to recognize and know more words. I’m trying to vivify your dormant vocabulary. Ha, ha.
If you already have a strong command of the language, you may have made some other connections. Perhaps you’ve seen that “vivir” looks a lot like our word “vivid.” That’s because they all go back to the same Latin root of vivere which also means “to live.” If you describe something as “vivid,” it is “lively” and has the appearance of “life.”
Animals in a “vivarium” are placed there to be kept “alive” in conditions that simulate their natural environments. If you are “vivacious,” you are a “lively” person. If you happen to be a “vivisectionist,” you cut into people or animals while they are “alive” to do medical or scientific investigations. If you happen to be Scottish, you might use the word “vivers” to refer to food — you know, the stuff that keeps us “alive.” Interestingly, the rather old-fashioned word of “viands” for “food” also goes back to the same Latin verb. If you’re a human female who has born a child, you are considered “viviparous” because the baby came out of you fully formed and “alive,” and you didn’t have to lay an egg to create it.
These are many of the words that begin with that “life-giving” prefix of “vivi-.” Knowing them in English makes learning the verb “vivir” quite easy. Learning “vivir” in Spanish makes recognizing words in English that begin the same way easier to figure out. I consider the learning of cognates to be “vital” to any productive language study — yep, “vital” is related to all the words I’ve shared so far.
Thus, when Doctor Frankenstein “vivified” his monster and endowed it with “vitality,” it was quite fitting for him to shout, “It’s alive! It’s alive!”
"It's alive!" (YouTube link for a short clip)
Thanks for joining me. Until next time. Viva vocabulary!
Tammy Marshall
Vivify