Grasping for the Wind

Overlived

Now here is a word that seems oxymoronic, "overlived". How can one live longer than the span of ones life? Be overlived? Of course, that is not actually the sense of the word. The OED (that epitome of verbosity) defines the word as having "Lived under great pressure or in intense activity."

1856 E. B. BROWNING Aurora Leigh III. 40 Overtasked and overstrained And overlived in this close London life! 1999 HP Professional (Nexis) Apr. 7 Despite it's [sic] long and somewhat overlived life, Open Systems refuses to go away.

One wonders if Christians couldn't reclaim this rare word to speak of our eventual life in heaven. If you believe as I do that our souls are not "new" in heaven but rather cleansed and perfected, then couldn't we perhaps call ourselves the "overlived". Or to use it differently, it would come to mean that we have outlived our earthly life, and overlived the span allotted to us.

Posted by John on February 20, 2007 09:51 AM | Posted to Literature and Language
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