Etymology

longevity

L1O1N1G2E1V4I1T1Y4

Today it means: The quality of being long-lasting, especially of life. Full definition →

Latin longaevitās
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · learned borrowing fromlongaevitās
  2. English todaylongevity

Early 17th century, learned borrowing from Latin longaevitās, from longaevus (“ancient, aged”) + -itās. The first part is related to English long and this association led to the alternative pronunciation with /ŋ/.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.