Английский Этимологический словарь - life

- O.E. life (dat. lif), from P.Gmc. *liba-. The Gmc. root has a sense of "body" that is preserved in lifeguard (1648). Much of the modern range of meaning was present in O.E. Lifestyle is from 1929, originally a specific term used by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler; broader sense is from 1961. Life of Riley is from 1919, perhaps from 1880s song about a man named O'Reilly and how he got rich and lived at ease. Lifer "prisoner serving a life sentence" is slang from 1830.