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-ing
Definitions
- 1 Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.; As true nouns. morpheme
"My hearing is not good."
- 2 Used to form present participles of verbs. morpheme
"Rolling stones gather no moss."
- 3 Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the sense ‘son of, belonging to’, as in placenames, patronymics or diminutives; -ite. idiomatic, morpheme
"Ealing, Dorking, Reading, Worthing"
- 4 Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.; As gerunds. morpheme
"Smoking marijuana cigarettes daily is bad for your health."
- 5 Forming nouns having a specified quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of morpheme
"sweet + -ing → sweeting"
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- 6 Used to form nouns denoting materials or systems of objects which are used or employed in an action, or considered collectively. morpheme
"Roofing is material that is used to roof."
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English -ing, -yng, -ynge, from Old English -ing, -ung (“-ing”, suffix forming nouns from verbs), from Proto-West Germanic *-ingu, *-ungu, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō (“-ing”). Cognates Cognate with Scots -in, -in', -ing (“-ing”), Yola -een (“-ing”), Saterland Frisian -enge (“-ing”), Dutch -ing (“-ing”), German and Luxembourgish -ung (“-ing”), Danish -ing, -ning (“-ing”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish -ing (“-ing”), French -ange (“-ing”). Unrelated to Brahui -اِنْگ (-iṅg, “-ing”).
From Middle English -inge, -ynge, alteration of earlier -inde, -ende, -and (see -and), from Old English -ende (present participle ending), from Proto-West Germanic *-andī, from Proto-Germanic *-andz (present participle ending), from Proto-Indo-European *-onts. Cognate with West Frisian -end, Dutch -end, Afrikaans -ende, German -end, Low German -end, Danish -ende, Swedish -ande, Icelandic -andi, Gothic -𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ands), -𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ōnds), Latin -ans, -ant-, Ancient Greek -ων (-ōn), Sanskrit -अन्त् (-ant), Polish -ący, -ąc, Czech -oucí, Ukrainian -учий (-učyj), Serbo-Croatian -ući/-ући. More at -and.
From Middle English -ynge, from Old English -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr.
See also for "-ing"
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