From un- + alive. Internet usage originates from circumventing social media algorithms that were believed to penalise the use of the words related to death, especially “die”, “kill”, and “suicide”. According to linguist Adam Aleksic, the word in the verb sense of “die, kill” first appeared in a 2013 episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, exploding in usage after a few viral videos in early 2021 popularized it. Since early 2022, unalive has become very widespread even outside Internet usage contexts, especially among adolescents. Aleksic argues that the word unalive has gained so much popularity because of a time-invariant tendency to refer to death by euphemism; compare the word die’s displacement of swelt, or the use of pass away.
1
Not alive; dead or inanimate.
Near-synonym: nonlive
John Sheldon laid down Sheilah ' s hand beside her on the bed , as if it had been a book , or something unalive, and took out of his bag near by an accessory that was almost as much a part of him as his glasses.1927, Olive Higgins Prouty, Conflict: A Novel, page 69:
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Often her anxiety will contribute toward making the child afraid of life and attracted to that which is unalive.1964, Eric Fromm, The Heart of Man, page 55:
Yellow Kang the last believed unalive. Reason not known.1987 October 5, Steven Wyatt, “Paradise Towers Part 1”, in Doctor Who, spoken by a Blue Kang:
She was amazed that he wasn't changed , that he wasn't hurt , or perhaps utterly unalive , murdered .1988, Richard Rossner, The Whole Story, page 14:
I wait for them to droop as in a natural cycle. But they are stubbornly unalive and therefore unwilting.2000, Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love, page 106:
2
Lacking vivacity and liveliness; dull or sterile.
Rebecca despises her professors because they cannot think as clearly as she can, cannot argue as well as she can, and are tired and dowdy and unalive.1929, American Association of University Women, AAUW Journal - Volumes 23-25, page 106:
The silent city asleep at our back , joyless and unalive.1936, Clement Wood, The Glory Road: An Autobiography, page 78:
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No, medicine is not an art , it is a science, but a mechanistic, unalive one.1944, International Journal of Sex-Economy and Orgone Research, page 186:
No amount of psychoanalytic interpretation will have an effect if the therapeutic atmosphere is heavy , unalive, and boring .1977, Psychotherapy & Social Science Review - Volume 11, page 4:
SLS seems to me not so much moral or immoral as simply a caricature; not admirable or deplorable, but absurd . . . . I found ( SLS ) hollow , unproductive , unalive , and above all stagy: not cinematic.1983, John S. McCann, The Critical Reputation of Tennessee Williams, page 171:
Our perception labels it as negative, just like our minds have been trained to accept only the clinical and unreal, the sterile and unalive, the prepackaged and filtered.2008, The Middle Way - Volumes 83-84, page 145:
3
Lacking energy and feeling; passionless; mechanical.
Rather be unhappy , and know it , than unalive, and not know it .1953, Sydney J. Harris, Strictly Personal, page 213:
But now these symptoms which seemed to be bad and inimical , namely , this anxiety or guilt , prove themselves to be helpful and friendly, for they intrude themselves in order to bring healing by awakening this living yet unalive person.1974, William R.Parker, Elaine St. Johus, Prayer Can Change Your Life, page 229:
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If I feel placid or unalive must I feign excitement?1975, Clark E. Moustakas, The Touch of Loneliness, page 39:
She made him look impetuous, excitable; he made her seem cold, unalive.1977, Michael D. Marcaccio, The Hapgoods Three Earnest Brothers, page 157:
Fromm ( 1968 ) refers to this as the spectre of a mechanized society in which human beings are slowly being transformed into the mechanical thing which is the society - passive, automatic, unfeeling, run by computers, unalive, a product of conditioning.1978, Alvin R. Mahrer, Experiencing: A Humanistic Theory of Psychology and Psychiatry, page 268:
4
Lacking a fulfilling life; meaningless.
In one rather poignant moment she reveals this predicament with her husband : if she has emasculated him throughout the years , Willie , in his own passive way , has made her feel similarly unalive: Was I ever lovable ?1966, Lois G. Gordon, Dialectic of the Beast and Monk, page 287:
And for the past six months I have been separated from my writing, and I have been nothing, or I have been walking about unalive, some indistinct shadow in a nightmare of the universe.2008, William Saroyan, William E. Justice, He Flies Through the Air with the Greatest of Ease, page 28:
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It is directly related, however, to being and non-being, a relation which suggests that being is defined by work if without a job one becomes "unalive".2009, Carole Jones, Disappearing Men:, page 34:
5
Often, With "to" Lacking consciousness; unresponsive, indifferent or oblivious.
We are not unalive to the gravity of the problem of unemployment but we want co-operation here also, and we believe that , if we receive it , hundreds of young men who are now swelling the ranks of the unemployed , may achieve self-support in a happy, healthy and independent life.1930, Sir Mirza M. Ismail, Speeches - Volume 1, page 128:
The realism was largely mere recoil , by a man unalive to how beer and a ribald joke can carry the common man through bibulation ; but the hunger of the mind was a very positive thing, active in him and in many of his most remarkable characters.1933, Thomas Earle Welby, Second Impressions, page 74:
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Next day Tappan was not unalive to the changing character of the forest.1950, Roy Chapman Andrews, My Favorite Stories of the Great Outdoors, page 314:
If ... the universe is unalive and indifferent , I will hope and work for something in myself quite different from what I will seek if the universe is laden with mind and life .1977, Stuart Holroyd, Psi and the Consciousness Explosion, page 204:
How unalive we are, how unincarnated we are, reveals itself as unresponsiveness, ungracefulness, and restricted bodily mobility.1981, Stanley Keleman, Your Body Speaks Its Mind, page 29:
From un- + alive. Internet usage originates from circumventing social media algorithms that were believed to penalise the use of the words related to death, especially “die”, “kill”, and “suicide”. According to linguist Adam Aleksic, the word in the verb sense of “die, kill” first appeared in a 2013 episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, exploding in usage after a few viral videos in early 2021 popularized it. Since early 2022, unalive has become very widespread even outside Internet usage contexts, especially among adolescents. Aleksic argues that the word unalive has gained so much popularity because of a time-invariant tendency to refer to death by euphemism; compare the word die’s displacement of swelt, or the use of pass away.
1
One who is unalive.
Most people are the unalives the notalives, the impersons, existing in an unworld of unlove and unbeing.1967, Helen Bevington, “Speaking of Books: Hellgazers and Rejoicers”, in The New York Times Book Review, volume 72, page 2:
The very latest of Mr. Cummings's new poems are fixed in rigid attitudes of youth, which now seem to show signs of weariness, caused by the strain of a prolonged defiance against "the sweet&aged people who rule this world," against the “unhearts,” the “unminds,” the “unalives."2009, Jirí Flajšar, Zénó Vernyik, Words into Pictures: E. E. Cummings’ Art Across Borders, page 83:
unalive
verb
Etymology
From un- + alive. Internet usage originates from circumventing social media algorithms that were believed to penalise the use of the words related to death, especially “die”, “kill”, and “suicide”. According to linguist Adam Aleksic, the word in the verb sense of “die, kill” first appeared in a 2013 episode of Ultimate Spider-Man, exploding in usage after a few viral videos in early 2021 popularized it. Since early 2022, unalive has become very widespread even outside Internet usage contexts, especially among adolescents. Aleksic argues that the word unalive has gained so much popularity because of a time-invariant tendency to refer to death by euphemism; compare the word die’s displacement of swelt, or the use of pass away.
1
Proscribed To make unalive; to kill, especially oneself; to commit suicide.
Jeffrey Epstein is thought to have unalived himself, but Tucker Carlson calls this position into question.
He “unalives” bad guys, sometimes for free, and this gives him a sense of purpose, even in an absurd world.2017, Nicolas Michaud, Jacob Thomas May, Deadpool and Philosophy: My Common Sense Is Tingling:
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Or does anyone know how to stop Broly without unaliving him?2017, Margaret Newmeli, Another Dimension: The Ultimate Amalgam, page 160:
"We are going to 'unalive' them once again,” said Yukt laughing and the men looked at him like he was crazy.2019, Aman K Singh, The Deserters: The Curse Bearer, page 237:
Sharing just how awkward she felt, Rara, who also has her own YouTube channel, joked she wanted to "unalive" herself.2021 May 18, Katie Storey, “Woman mortified after her old school teacher follows her on OnlyFans… and says she was always ‘something special’”, in The Sun:
Bro, I was sticking up for you. You better top your coolant up or you're gonna unalive your engine.2024 December 9, Colin O'Donnell, “Episode 6497” (0:09:32 from the start), in Hollyoaks, spoken by Freddie Roscoe (Charlie Clapham), Channel 4: