The Meaning of Grice's "Life"

Grice was right when he emphasised a study of Greek. In Greek, the distinction between vegetal and animal is otiose: both are living things. Zoa, i.e bios. The English language sometimes recovers this distinction. Sometimes it doesn't. Etc.

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life. OE. líf strong neuter noun, corresponds to Old Frisian lîf neut.,
life, person, body, Old Saxon lîf neut., life, person (Middle Dutch lijf life,
body, Dutch lijf body), Old High German lîb masc. and neut., life (Middle High
German lîp, inflected lîb-, masc., life, body, mod.German leib masc., body),
Old Norse líf neut., life, occas. body (Sw. lif, Da. liv life, body):OTeut.
*lîom, f. Teut. root *l-, whence LIVE v., OE. belífan BELIVE v., to remain;
the ablaut-var. *lai- appears in LEAVE v. The general meaning of the root
(Aryan *leip-, loip-, lip-) is ‘to continue, last, endure’; cf. Gr. lipares
persistent.

-- a 'body' is continuant, 'persistent', and hence 'alive'.

"to live" [A Common Teutonic weak vb.: OE. libban (WS.). lifian, lifan
(Anglian and in poetical texts), pa. tense lifode, lifde, corresp. to OFris.
libba, liva, leva, OS. libbian, pa. tense pl. libdun (Du. leven), OHG. lebên
(MHG., mod.G. leben) to live, ON. lifa to live, remain (Sw. lefva to live,
qvar-lefva to remain, Da. leve to live), Goth. liban, pa. tense libaida to
live:OTeut. stem *li-, f. root *l- (: lai-) to remain, continue, whence LIFE n., q.v. for cognate words.]

to live. a. quasi-trans. with cognate obj. = 4. spec. to live one's own life: to
follow one's own plans or principles; to live independently.
c1000 ÆLFRIC Hom. (Th.) II. 476/16 Se cyning Eglippus leofode his lif on
eawfæstre drohtnunge.

Etc.

JL