You can think of outlive as two lines drawn side by side along time. One line stops. The other keeps going past the place where the first one ended. That is all out- + live is doing: out- means past or beyond, live means to go on being here. Whether the lines are two lives, two buildings, or a thing and the use people had for it, the picture does not change — one ends, one goes on past it.

outlive 的畫面可以想成兩條線,沿著時間並排往前畫。其中一條先停住。另一條越過那個停住的點,繼續往前。out- 是「越過」,live 是「還在」,合起來就是這個畫面。不管兩條線是兩個人的一生、兩棟建築,還是一樣東西跟它的用處,畫面都一樣:一邊結束,另一邊走過去了。

From the word’s history

Recorded as Middle English outliven, simply out- + live. The parts are still visible in the modern word, which is why the picture of going past the stopping point works so well.

來源記載這個字來自中古英語 outliven,就是 out- 加上 live。兩個部分到今天還看得出來,所以「越過那個停住的點」這個畫面,跟字的組成是對得上的。

Wiktionary (kaikki extract, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:674551589)

登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。