vita
Meaning
a brief biographical sketch, especially of a person's career and professional qualifications.
a curriculum vitae.
Usage
she submitted her vita along with the application for the academic position.
the first chapter of the biography provides a detailed vita of the artist's early years.
his impressive vita listed publications from over two decades of research.
Etymology
the word "vita" entered english directly from latin, where "vīta" meant "life". this latin term is itself derived from the proto-italic gʷītā, which is ultimately traceable to the proto-indo-european root gʷei̯h₃- meaning "to live". unlike many latin borrowings that combine with english affixes, "vita" was adopted as a complete lexical unit. in modern english, its meaning has specialized from the general concept of "life" to refer specifically to a written account of a person's life, particularly their professional career, reflecting a focused semantic evolution from the original, broader source.
Analysis
the entire word "vita" is a simplex loanword from latin, where it functioned as a noun meaning "life".