'survival' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'supervivere', where 'super-' meant 'over' and 'vivere' meant 'to live'.

'supervivere' passed into Old French as 'survivre' (verb) and through Middle English forms (e.g. 'survive', noun formations like 'survival') to become the modern English 'survival'.

Initially it meant 'to live beyond' (as a verb sense of outliving), but over time it also developed the noun sense 'the act or fact of surviving' and 'a thing that remains from an earlier time'.