# to live (residence / existence)



## Setwale_Charm

Many languages have two distinct words to convey the meaning of "to live" in English, "жить" in Russian, or żyć in Polish.
 One, like the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", the Dutch "wonen", the Hungarian "lakikni", refers to residence. 
 The other like "leben", "vivre", "vivere", "leven", "elni" refers to existence. 
 However, the tendency as it appears to me is to increasingly use the latter even when talikng of living at some place. 
 What is the situation in your language? Are there two distinct words for "to live" and to what extent are they mutually replaceable?


  Thanks.


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## Outsider

Portuguese is one of those languages.

Morar = Habitar = "to live somewhere, to reside"

Viver = "to live" in general, or also "to live somewhere, to reside"​


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## DrWatson

Finnish also makes this distinction:
*
asua* = to live (residence)
*elää* = to live (existence)

My experience tells me there's a strict difference between these two, i.e. in Finnish they're not interchangeable, at least in the sense when discussing your place of residence. There may be some individual cases where the existence verb deals with location, but not often.


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## MarX

Indonesian makes a distinction:

*tinggal* = to live (residence)
*hidup* = to live (existence)

Just like in Finnish, there is no confusion between the two, and they are not interchangeable.


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## ukuca

In Turkish, we say *yaşamak* to express the existence and *oturmak* (or in some cases *kalmak)* to express the residence. "*oturmak*" also means to "sit/sit down" and *"kalmak" *also means "to stay".


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## Anatoli

The most common words in Chinese and Japanese distinguish the 2 notions (note that the main characters are the same too):

*Chinese:*
住  (zhù) - to live (in a place)
生活 shēnghuó - to live, to exist; also "life"

*Japanese:*
住む (すむ - sumu) - to live (in a place)
生きる (いきる - ikiru) - to live, to exist

In Japanese 生活 (せいかつ - seikatsu), which is the same as the Chinese 生活 (shēnghuó) is only used as a noun, not a verb.


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## alex.raf

*Persian:*
*Zendeh-gi Kardan* *زندگی کردن* = to live (residence)
*Zendeh Boodan* *زنده بودن* = to live (existence)

zendeh = live (n)
zendeh-gi = life


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## dudasd

Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian

živeti/živjeti - its primary meaning is: to live, to be alive, to exist 

živeti/živjeti - its secondary meaning is: to abide (somewhere), but often it's replaced with:

- stanovati (to live at a specified place, e.g. on which address or in which appartment, like German "wohnen")
- obitavati (to use to live somewhere, to inherit some area)
- boraviti (to live at some place, but only temporarily)
- sedeti (archaic and almost not used anymore; verbatim: to sit - like Turkish "oturmak")

A note: the verb "živ(j)eti" may have a nuance of way of living as well: "Kako živiš?" ("How do you live?") means "How do you do?" or "How are you?" - or "Wie gehts?" in German.


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## Setwale_Charm

Well, this is my perception too: that the "residence" verb is occasionally (and as it seems to me, increasingly) substituted by the "existence" verb but not vice versa.


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## Joannes

Dutch has *wonen* and *leven*. The latter is only marginally used for residence in certain contexts.


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## Outsider

Setwale_Charm said:


> Well, this is my perception too: that the "residence" verb is occasionally (and as it seems to me, increasingly) substituted by the "existence" verb but not vice versa.


Make that "often" for Portuguese. Not sure about "increasingly", though. Compared to what?


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## Setwale_Charm

I do not know. It is just my own inner feeling. I seem to stumble more and more frequently over: Ich lebe in Stuttgart, Je vis dans cette ville depuis le deluge, Ik zou graag in Gent leven. Il tuo italiano e tanto bello, hai vissuto in Italia? etc etc....


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## jaxlarus

In Greek the verb to live (ζω) covers both contexts, but other verbs can be used as well:

To live: *ζω *[There's another verb, *βιώνω *(< βίος = life), which means to fully experience something, to go through something, to live in full awareness]
To reside: *ζω*, *μένω *(to stay), *κατοικώ*, *κάθομαι *(to sit), *διαμένω*.


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## Woland

In Romanian , ''to live'' and ''to residence'' have the same use.-''a trăi''
Eu trăiesc (I live/i exist)
Eu trăiesc în Franţa (I live in France)
 However,there is another word people use for the meaning of residence ,''a locui''(from the Hungarian ''lakni'',but it's not that popular)


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## robbie_SWE

Woland said:


> In Romanian , ''to live'' and ''to residence'' have the same use.-''a trăi''
> Eu trăiesc (I live/i exist)
> Eu trăiesc în Franţa (I live in France)
> However,there is another word people use for the meaning of residence ,''a locui''(from the Hungarian ''lakni'',but it's not that popular)


 
Even if you're right concerning *a trăi*, I have to contradict you about *a locui*. There's a huge difference between these two verbs and the second one is used daily in contemporary Romanian (where did you get the "unpopular" notion?). 

_Eu locuiesc în Franţa_ (I reside/live in France)
_Eu locuiesc în apartamentul ăsta_ (I reside/live in this apartement)
_Eu locuiesc în __Paris_ (I reside/live in Paris)

These two verbs are the Romanian equivalents of the French *vivre* (_a trăi_) & *habiter* (_a locui_) and the Italian *vivere* (_a trăi_) & *abitare* (_a locui_). 

But it doesn't stop there! In Romanian there is a myriad of words expressing "to live" and "to reside": 

*a vieţui* (_to live_)
*a* *fiinţa* (_to live_, _to exist_)
*a domicilia* (_to reside_, _to have a residence_)
*a şedea* (_to reside_, _to stay somewhere_)'

There are many more regional words, but that's another thread!  Hope this helped Setwale_Charm with your initial question! 

All the best, 

 robbie


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## sabrinita85

*ITALIAN:

Abitare *= to live (residence)
*Vivere  *= to live (existence)


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## Anatoli

Setwale_Charm said:


> Many languages have two distinct words to convey the meaning of "to live" in English, "жить" in Russian, or żyć in Polish.
> One, like the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", the Dutch "wonen", the Hungarian "lakikni", refers to residence.
> The other like "leben", "vivre", "vivere", "leven", "elni" refers to existence.
> However, the tendency as it appears to me is to increasingly use the latter even when talikng of living at some place.
> What is the situation in your language? Are there two distinct words for "to live" and to what extent are they mutually replaceable?
> 
> 
> Thanks.


Actually, in Polish, "mieszkać" is used as the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", etc in the meaning of "to reside", проживать (Russian).


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## Setwale_Charm

Anatoli said:


> Actually, in Polish, "mieshkać" is used as the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", etc in the meaning of "to reside", проживать (Russian).


 
проживать seems to sound rather official to me, not generally used in conversations.


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## Anatoli

I agree, I only explained that "mieszkać" is used in the meaning of "to reside" - also more official than "to live" but unambiguous In my opinion, Polish falls into the same category as German, French, Italian, etc., not English and Russian as per this topic, because this distinction between "exist" and "reside" is common in Polish. Ukrainian also uses a similar "мешкати" (to live, to reside) but it's not as common as "жити" (which is used fro both "to exist" and "to reside" as in Russian), IMHO. Correct me if I am wrong. The trend is perhaps to use more "мешкати", as Ukrainian is becoming increasingly _de-russified_.



> Ukrainian:
> *мешкати:*
> meaning and synonyms: жити, проживати, (у певному приміщенні); домувати, квартирувати


--
I misspelled "mieszkać" in my previous post, have corrected now.


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## PABLO DE SOTO

In Spanish we use *vivir* as in English for both existence and residence.
There are some other verbs ,used in formal situations for the idea of residence, like *habitar* or *residir* .


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## HistofEng

Similar to the Romance languages:

Haitian Creole (Kreyól):

*viv*: existence
*abite*: residence


However, '*viv*' can sometimes be used for residence. If I were speaking with a friend I hadn't spoken to in years, I would say:

_Ki kote w'ap *viv *kounye-la?_ (Where are you living now?)('abite' can also be used here)



If, however, I had to meet up with a coworker at his/her home, I would say:

_Ki kote ou *abite*?_ (Where do you live?)('viv' sounds very awkward in this situation)




Even in English, I think 'where are you living' sounds distinctly different from 'where do you live.'

If I were forced to form an analysis, I would say that '*viv*' (and the gerund 'living' for English) can be used in the first example because it is more akin to 'Where are you having your existence now' or 'where is the place of your existence'. On the other hand, '*abite*' has more proximate connotations.


Does that make any sense? Do any other languages work the same way?


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## kusurija

In Czech:
(residence) bydlet (bydlím v Praze; bydlím v podnájmu) But in special cases = as existence(rarely): e.g. "Kde to žiješ?!"
(existence) žít e.g. Jak si žiješ? (How do you do?)

In Lithuanian:
(doesn't distinguish: residence=existence) gyventi.


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## Flaminius

Anatoli said:


> The most common words in Chinese and Japanese distinguish the 2 notions (note that the main characters are the same too):
> (...)
> 
> *Japanese:*
> 住む (すむ - sumu) - to live (in a place)
> 生きる (いきる - ikiru) - to live, to exist
> 
> In Japanese 生活 (せいかつ - seikatsu), which is the same as the Chinese 生活 (shēnghuó) is only used as a noun, not a verb.


I am not sure with the semantic demarcation in Chinese but Japanese has at least three separate concepts that correspond to the English _live_.
生きる (ikiru) is a notion to be contrasted with death.  It means biological life, even though, as the commonest word to mean "life," many other nuances are expressed.

Life in sense of filling our time in this world with activities, thereby giving it a structure, requires another verb in Japanese; 暮らす (kurasu), which is used as in 日々の暮らし (hibi-no kurashi) or day-to-day life.  It goes without saying that animals are rarely conceived as having life (暮らし) in this sense.


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## OldAvatar

Woland said:


> In Romanian , ''to live'' and ''to residence'' have the same use.-''a trăi''
> Eu trăiesc (I live/i exist)
> Eu trăiesc în Franţa (I live in France)
> However,there is another word people use for the meaning of residence ,''a locui''(from the Hungarian ''lakni'',but it's not that popular)



I'm sorry to disappoint you. But in Romanian...
1. The verb *a locui, locuire* is popular enough and is used in spoken language as usual as *a trăi*. Even if the sense is similar, there are differences between those two verbs.
2. the etymology can not be Hungarian. It may be the other way arround, I'm not sure about that, but I can assure that the etymology is the Latin _locus _(_place _in English)_._


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## Woland

OldAvatar said:


> 2. the etymology can not be Hungarian. It may be the other way arround, I'm not sure about that, but I can assure that the etymology is the Latin _locus _(_place _in English)_._


 

It Seems that the Romanian Accademy has another opinion
*LOCUÍ, *_locuiesc, _vb. IV. *1.* Intranz. A-şi avea domiciliul undeva, a fi stabilit cu locuinţa undeva; a sta, a şedea undeva, a domicilia. *2.*Tranz. (Înv.) A aşeza pe cineva într-un loc; a stabili, a coloniza. – *Din magh.* *lakni* (după *loc*). 
http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=locui


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## OldAvatar

Woland said:


> It Seems that the Romanian Accademy has another opinion
> *LOCUÍ, *_locuiesc, _vb. IV. *1.* Intranz. A-şi avea domiciliul undeva, a fi stabilit cu locuinţa undeva; a sta, a şedea undeva, a domicilia. *2.*Tranz. (Înv.) A aşeza pe cineva într-un loc; a stabili, a coloniza. – *Din magh.* *lakni* (după *loc*).
> http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=locui




I know it has. But there are a lot of dubious info which remained official from past dark ages of linguistic research. I'll dare to open a thread about that.


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## robbie_SWE

Woland said:


> It Seems that the Romanian Accademy has another opinion
> *LOCUÍ, *_locuiesc, _vb. IV. *1.* Intranz. A-şi avea domiciliul undeva, a fi stabilit cu locuinţa undeva; a sta, a şedea undeva, a domicilia. *2.*Tranz. (Înv.) A aşeza pe cineva într-un loc; a stabili, a coloniza. – *Din magh.* *lakni* (după *loc*).
> http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=locui


 
This means that the verb was created from a Hungarian conception (even if this subject may be discussed), but the word in itself is derived from _loc_ < Latin *locus*. This inevitably makes it a word created from Latin testimonials. 



> I know it has. But there are a lot of dubious info which remained official from past dark ages of linguistic research. I'll dare to open a thread about that.


 
I agree OldAvatar, this issue should be discussed in another forum because it gives birth to a very interesting question about many Romanian words with unknown etymologies. 

 robbie


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## Woland

Thank you robbie and OldAvatar,my latin knowledge=O ,so I only believed in the D.E.X. explanation. You guys may be right,thanks again


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*:

*loĝi* = to live, to reside (residence)
*vivi* = to live (existence)

While the two words are not generally considered to be interchangeable, I have seen _vivi_ used to refer to residence.  However, this seems to be more a holdover from the speaker’s/writer’s first language.


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## Anatoli

Flaminius said:


> I am not sure with the semantic demarcation in Chinese but Japanese has at least three separate concepts that correspond to the English _live_.
> 生きる (ikiru) is a notion to be contrasted with death.  It means biological life, even though, as the commonest word to mean "life," many other nuances are expressed.
> 
> Life in sense of filling our time in this world with activities, thereby giving it a structure, requires another verb in Japanese; 暮らす (kurasu), which is used as in 日々の暮らし (hibi-no kurashi) or day-to-day life.  It goes without saying that animals are rarely conceived as having life (暮らし) in this sense.


Thanks for the insight, Flaminius


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## Lello4ever

In Italian *vivere* is used for both exist(experience) and live in a place.


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## Abbassupreme

alex.raf said:


> *Persian:*
> *Zendeh-gi Kardan* *زندگی کردن* = to live (residence)
> *Zendeh Boodan* *زنده بودن* = to live (existence)
> 
> zendeh = live (n)
> zendeh-gi = life



Actually, a more verbatim translation of "Zendeh Budan(Zendeh Boodan)" is "to be alive", with zendeh translating to "alive" or "live" programming when it comes to Persian-language media.

Also, another word for simply "living" (existence) is "zistan". "Zistan" translates to "to live", but apparently only the infinitive is used. I don't think I've ever seen it conjugated.


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## Maja

In Serbian "*živeti*" means "to live" and "to reside".


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## Anatoli

I will try to explain the usage in the standard (classical) *Arabic*, since no natives have posted, please correct me  I am posting my learner's observations 

Arabic has quite a few verbs meaning "to live". I post 2 verbs in 2 forms, most Arabic verbs are usually introduced in these 2 forms to the learners. 

The most common for "reside" seems
سكن *sakan(a)* (3rd person singular masculine of the past tense, also the dictionary form)
يسكن *yaskun(u*) (3rd person singular masculine of the present tense)

To exist or to be alive:
عاش *`aasha* (also transliterated as 3aasha) (3rd person singular masculine of the past tense, also the dictionary form)
يعيش *ya`iish(u)*  (also transliterated as ya3iish(u))  (3rd person singular masculine of the present tense)

There are verbs meaning to subsist (live on something), so there's quite a variety in Arabic. Besides there are colloquial Arabic forms. Standard Arabic is normally not used in everyday speech.

--Please correct any mistakes and add nuances


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## jonquiliser

In Swedish, there's the same distinction as in many languages between _att bo_ - reside - and _att leva_ - to be alive, live. The only cases I can think of where you'd use _att leva_ meaning that you live somewhere is when saying something like "hon levde hela sitt liv på orten", "she lived her whole life in [that] municipality".


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian: 

habiter: stanovati

vivir:   ziveti

Croatian: 

habiter: stanovati

vivir:    zivjeti

Croatians and Slovenians have many words: the same.


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## Maja

> In Serbian "*živeti*" means "to live" and "to reside".


 Also: "stanovati", "obitavati" -> "to reside". But "živeti" is more common when explaining that someone  lives somewhere. 

I live here. - Ja živim ovde.
I live in a 5-bedroom  flat. - Ja živim u petosobnom stanu.
etc.


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## Encolpius

Setwale_Charm said:


> Many languages have two distinct words to convey the meaning of "to live" in English, "жить" in Russian, or żyć in Polish.
> One, like the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", the Dutch "wonen", the Hungarian "lakikni".....



*Hungarian *lakni wohnen élni leben


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## Dymn

In *Catalan *there's the same verb: _viure_



Lello4ever said:


> In Italian *vivere* is used for both exist(experience) and live in a place.


Does Italian really belong to the same group as French? Would _"abito a Roma"_ sound natural in a casual conversation?


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## Sardokan1.0

Yes it sounds natural, the verbs Abitare and Vivere are interchangeable, you can say Abito a Roma or Vivo a Roma.

In Sardinian instead we only use the verb Vivere, while the verb Abitare doesn't exist.

Italian : Noi abitiamo a Roma.
Sardinian : Nòis che vivimus in Roma.


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## KalAlbè

HistofEng said:


> Similar to the Romance languages:
> 
> Haitian Creole (Kreyól):
> 
> *viv*: existence
> *abite*: residence
> 
> 
> However, '*viv*' can sometimes be used for residence. If I were speaking with a friend I hadn't spoken to in years, I would say:
> 
> _Ki kote w'ap *viv *kounye-la?_ (Where are you living now?)('abite' can also be used here)
> 
> 
> 
> If, however, I had to meet up with a coworker at his/her home, I would say:
> 
> _Ki kote ou *abite*?_ (Where do you live?)('viv' sounds very awkward in this situation)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Even in English, I think 'where are you living' sounds distinctly different from 'where do you live.'
> 
> If I were forced to form an analysis, I would say that '*viv*' (and the gerund 'living' for English) can be used in the first example because it is more akin to 'Where are you having your existence now' or 'where is the place of your existence'. On the other hand, '*abite*' has more proximate connotations.
> 
> 
> Does that make any sense? Do any other languages work the same way?



*Abite *has a bit of a formal register similar to the verb _reside _in English. In everyday speech *rete *would be more common.


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## merquiades

Dymn said:


> Does Italian really belong to the same group as French? Would _"abito a Roma"_ sound natural in a casual conversation?





Sardokan1.0 said:


> Yes it sounds natural, the verbs Abitare and Vivere are interchangeable, you can say Abito a Roma or Vivo a Roma.
> 
> In Sardinian instead we only use the verb Vivere, while the verb Abitare doesn't exist.
> 
> Italian : Noi abitiamo a Roma.
> Sardinian : Nòis che vivimus in Roma.


In French too, both verbs are possible for residing: _ J'ai habité_ / _J'ai vécu_ à Rome.  No difference.
_Résider_ is the formal option.


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## nimak

*Macedonian*

живеам (živeam) ['ʒi.vɛ.am] = _I live; I exist; I reside_

But there is a distinct word for "temporary residing"
престојувам (prestojuvam) [prɛ'stɔjuvam] = _I reside/live somewhere temporarily_


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## In-Su

Setwale_Charm said:


> One, like the German "wohnen", the French "habiter", the Italian "abitare", the Dutch "wonen", the Hungarian "lakikni", refers to residence.
> The other like "leben", "vivre", "vivere", "leven", "elni" refers to existence.


(French) Just for clarity:
_habiter_ = to reside to be alive
_vivre_ = 1. to be alive; 2. to reside


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## apmoy70

jaxlarus said:


> In Greek the verb to live (ζω) covers both contexts, but other verbs can be used as well:


It's true it does, but the generic verb used in the vernacular (at least in Standard MoGr, I don't know if it's the same in the Cypriot Greek dialect) is *«μένω»* [ˈme.nɔ] --> _to stay, remain_ (in this context _to reside, occupy, dwell_) < Classical v. *«μένω» ménō* --> _to remain, stay, wait, expect, stand fast_ (PIE *men- _to stay_ cf Lat. manēre, ToA/B mäsk, _to reside, be_).


jaxlarus said:


> To live: *ζω *[There's another verb, *βιώνω *(< βίος = life), which means to fully experience something, to go through something, to live in full awareness]


*«Ζω»* [zɔ] is used in the broader sense i.e. *«ζω στην Ελλάδα»* [zɔ stin eˈla.ða] --> _I live in Greece_, *«ζω στην Πάτρα»* [zɔ stiɱ ˈbat.ra] --> _I live in Patras_.
*«Βιώνω»* [viˈɔ.nɔ] in MoGr is something totally different, it's changed meaning since mediaeval times and is now used (as you correctly described) when experiencing something < Classical denominative v. *«βιόω/βιῶ» bĭóō* (uncontracted)/*bĭô* (contracted) --> _to live_ < Classical masc. noun *«βίος» bíŏs* --> _way of_, or, _means of life_ (for its etymology see «ζω»).
MoGr v. *«ζω»* [zɔ] --> _to live_ < Classical v. *«ζάω - ζώω/ζῶ» záō* or *zṓō* (uncontracted)/*zô* (contracted) --> _to live_ (PIE *gʷei̯h₃-/*gʷi(e)h₃- _to live_ cf Skt. जीवति (jī́vati), Lat. vīvere, ToA śo/ToB śai, _to live_, Proto-Slavic *žiti > Rus. жить, Cz. žít, Pol. żyć).


jaxlarus said:


> To reside: *ζω*, *μένω *(to stay), *κατοικώ*, *κάθομαι *(to sit), *διαμένω*.


The deponent v. *«κάθομαι»* [ˈka.θɔ.me] at least in Standard MoGr is a colloquialism; it lit. means _to sit, sit down_ < Classical v. *«καθέζομαι» kătʰézŏmai̯* --> _to sit, sit down_ < Classical preposition & prefix *«κατά» kătá* + deponent v. *«ἕζομαι» hézŏmai̯* --> _to sit on the ground, crouch_ (PIE *sed- _to sit down_ cf Skt. सीदति (sīdati), _to sit_, Lat. sīdere, Proto-Germanic *sitjaną).

*«Κατοικώ»* [ka.tiˈkɔ] & *«διαμένω»* [ði.aˈme.nɔ] are formally used when filling up application forms or writing other public/academic documents:
-*«Κατοικώ»* [ka.tiˈkɔ] --> _to inhabit, reside permanently_ < Classical v. *«κατοικέω/κατοικῶ» kătoi̯kéō* (uncontracted)/*kătoi̯kô* (contracted) --> _to settle in, colonize_ < Classical preposition & prefix *«κατά» kătá* + Classical masc. noun *«οἶκος» oî̯kŏs*.
-*«Διαμένω»* [ði.aˈme.nɔ] --> _to reside, dwell_ < Classical v. *«διαμένω» dĭăménō* --> _to remain, live on, endure, be strong_ < Classical preposition & prefix *«διά» dĭắ* + v. *«μένω» ménō* (see earlier).


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## kaverison

In Tamil, I think, we have something similar to Japanese - 3 types of life/living:

வாழ்/வாழ்வு - vaazh/vaazhu = live, as in "live in a city" or "live like a king".
(ழ் - zh sounds somewhat like the American R). 

வசி, குடியிரு, உறை - vasi, kudiyiru (or simply iru), uRai = live, as in "reside in an apartment on 5th st".
தங்கு - thangu = reside temporarily, like in a motel, or even staying somewhere else for work or school or travel - this is not your permanent residence.

Though we could substitute vaazh for reside in some context.

வாழ்க்கை - vaazhkkai = Life as in married life, professional life, public life etc.
உயிர் - uyir = life, as in living, breathing life

(In தமிழ் எழுத்துக்கள் - Tamil Alphabets, vowels are called உயிர் எழுத்து - uyir to mean they give life to words)


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