▪ I. ‖ viva, n.1 and int.
(ˈviːvə)
[It., lit. ‘live’, 3rd pers. sing. pres. subj. of vivere (:—L. vīvĕre) to live. So Sp. and Pg. viva. Cf. vivat.]
A cry of ‘long live’ as a salute or greeting; a shout of applause; a cheer or hurrah: a. As a n., in the pl. vivas.
| a 1700 Evelyn Diary 23 Nov. 1644, The multitude..were..looking out of their windows and houses, with loud viva's and acclamations of felicity to their new Prince. 1728 [? De Foe] Capt. Carleton's Mem. 268 The Cavaliero..received the repeated Vivas of that vast Concourse. 1818 Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 53 He kept bowing and scraping,..answering the paid vivas of the populace with one of his jolis mots. 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. i. 490 Whereat the popular exultation drunk With indrawn ‘vivas’ the whole sunny air. 1882 ‘Oiuda’ Under Two Flags (1890) 411 Lifting her, with wild vivas that rent the sky, on to the shoulders of the four tallest men. |
b. As an exclamation.
| 1841 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Auto-da-Fé, How they shouted, and fired the great guns in the square, Cried ‘Viva!’ and rung all the bells in the steeple. |
▪ II. viva, n.2 Univesity colloq.
(ˈvaɪvə)
[Abbrev. of viva voce.]
= viva voce n.
| 1891 Athenæum 19 Dec. 825/2 The description of his vivâ will bring vivid recollections of similar tortures to many minds. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 27 July 1/3 If a man has done his paperwork either very well or very badly, the ‘viva’ is almost entirely formal. |
Hence ˈviva v. trans., to subject to a viva voce examination; also intr., to examine viva voce.
| 1893 in J. B. Firth Minstrelsy of Isis (1908) 190 We shall laugh at our Tutors and leave them to ‘viva’ themselves and be free. 1907 ‘Barbara Burke’ Barbara goes to Oxford 122 Facing them..sat the youth who was being vivâed. |