Vive, Viva
Vive and Viva are terms used in the Romance languages. Vive, in French, and Viva, in Spanish and Italian, mean, "long live." They are often used to salute a person or non-personal entity: "Vive le Québec libre" (from Charles de Gaulle's Vive le Québec libre speech in Montréal), or "Viva il Duce!", the rough equivalent in Fascist Italy of the greeting, "Heil Hitler." Additionally, in monarchical times the king of France would be wished, "Vive le Roi!" (Long live the King!) The use of these terms has increased in non-Latin nations recently; for example, a common greeting regarding the Anglophone city of Las Vegas is "Viva Las Vegas!" One reason may be that Germanic languages do not have a good equivalent of the term; the closest may be Hail (English)/Heil (German), which understandably has tainted connotations. Nevertheless, Hail still appears in certain previously frozen expressions and usages, to wit: the song Hail to the Chief.
|
|
