Etymology

half-life

Today it means: The time required for half the nuclei in a sample of an isotope to undergo radioactive decay. Full definition →

English life ← Middle English lyf ← Old English līf
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The story

  1. Englishhalf-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*leyp-
  3. Proto-Germanic*lībaną
  4. Proto-Germanic*lībą
  5. Proto-West Germanic*līb
  6. Old Englishlīf
  7. Middle Englishlyf
  8. Englishlife
  9. English todayhalf-life

From half- + life.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.