combining form of L. vīvus alive, living, employed in a few terms, as † vivicombu·stion, = next; vivicrema·tion, the action of burning, or the fact of being burned, alive; † vividisse·ction = VIVISECTION 2; vivise·pulture, burying alive.
a. 1711. G. Grey, Life M. Robinson, in Mayor, Autobiogr. (1856), 31. He was invited by some learned persons in other colleges to shew them vividisections of dogs.
1827. G. S. Faber, Sacr. Cal. Prophecy (1844), I. 220. The horrid penalty of vivi-cremation which a corrupt Church has specially appropriated to those whom she denominates heretics.
1852. J. W. Blakesley, Herodotus, I. 87. Many centuries afterwards … human sacrifices appear to have been offered to Mithras, but then not by vivi-combustion.
1861. R. F. Burton, City of Saints, 580. They are a superstitious brood and have many cruel practices—human sacrifices and vivisepulture.
1863. Liddell in Archaeol., XL. 243. Pliny speaks of the practice of vivisepulture as continued to his own time.
1868. Episcopal Methodist (Raleigh, NC), 1 July, 3/1. The horrible complication of railroad accidents with vivi-cremation, has attracted the attention of inventors to devices for heating cars without the use of stoves.
