Vive, Viva

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Vive, Viva and Vivat are interjections used in the Romance languages. Vive, in French, and Viva, in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, Vivat, in Romanian and Latin are subjunctive forms of the verb "to live". They literally mean, "may it live", and are usually translated to English as "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 medieval university Latin anthem De Brevitate Vitae has verses like:

Vivat academia!

Vivant professores!

Vivat academia!

Vivant professores!

Vivat membrum quodlibet

Vivat membra quaelibet

Semper sint in flore.

In Spanish, for plural subjects, it becomes vivan. Compare ¡Viva el rey! with ¡Vivan los reyes!. An alternate form ¡Arriba [...]! ("Up with [...]") acquired a Falangist nuance from its use in their anthem Cara al sol.

The Mexican slogan "¡Viva Zapata!" was used to title the 1952 English-language biographical drama film Viva Zapata! by Elia Kazan, about Emiliano Zapata. It later inspired the title of 2005 Italian-language documentary film Viva Zapatero!, by Sabina Guzzanti, referring to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

In Italy, the nationalist phrase "Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re d'Italia!" ("Long live Victor Emmanuel king of Italy") was hidden from the Austrian enemy by its acronym Viva VERDI!, that passed for a praise of the music of Giuseppe Verdi. In Italian graffitti, viva is often abbreviated as W, a letter otherwise foreign to Italian. The opposite concept abbasso ("Down with") is abbreviated with a reversed W.

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 West 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.

On July 25, 2005, upon winning his seventh consecutive Tour de France and subsequently retiring from professional cycling, Lance Armstrong ended his farewell speech with "Vive le Tour, forever."

Vive, Viva

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