[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 sb., 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. G. Carleton’s Mem. (1743), 268. The Cavaliero having thus made his Bows, 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. ‘Ouida,’ 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.
