Very much alive and alert; still surviving. The term originated with fishmongers who thus described their wares, meaning that they were extremely fresh. By the mid-nineteenth century it was considered a cliché. A more recent version is alive and well, which originated as a denial to a false report of someone’s death. It was given a boost by the French singer Jacques Brel, whose show and recording, translated as Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, became immensely popular in the 1970s.